IMAX in Space: Celebrating 40 Years, NASA Budget Cuts

Hello again, Steve here with another Astronomy Daily. It's the fourteenth of April twenty twenty five podcast to be your whole speed. Don't clue. That's right. We're back again and while Halle downloads into the Australias Studio, I'll fill you in on today's selection. Ali found a couple of interesting stories. A great one for film buffs. Did you know that forty years ago they made an Imax film in space? Well I didn't know that, so we're going to look into it. And some disappointing but not unexpected news that the Trunk Administration may be planning to slash funding at NASA. I know we touched on this a few weeks ago, but I'm sure every sky watcher, space hound and orbit jockey is saddened at the prospect that we will have to wait it out and see what happens. I'm here now, Oh great, good to see Hallie. I was busy colleading with Anna for the weekly podcast sessions. The Easter breaks coming up, so she's got it all in her hands. She's got it all, but I think she likes the company. I'm not surprised. Say hi for me next time you're in the Astronomy Daily Virtual studio. Won't you will do? What did I miss? I was just doing the story rundown for today. I got to NASA's announcement of a seat but agreement with ros Cosmos and the last story. The last story is where is it? Oh? That's the one about lunar concrete weird stuff right up your alley, that one. I is no argument there. I am a moonfan, a lunatic. Well, if the shoe fits. It fits you do love stories about. The moon, can't. Hilbert Guildy is charged anyway, So let's get into it. Hallie go hit that go button. Ohkies, the dream is still alive. The first Imax film shot in space at forty years four decades later, as marsiha Ivans and cinematographer James Nayhouse reveals stories from the making of the Giant Screen movie, James Nayhouse had one more thing to share. From inside a tote bag, he pulled out a chrome frame displaying eleven strips of tape, each of which had printed text and handwritten notes. These were labels removed from film cans, the award winning cinematographer explained, but not just from any film. These were the forty one year old labels from the third Space Shuttle mission to carry an Imax camera into Earth orbit. The roles were used in the making of the first movie to include scenes shot in space, as first released four decades ago this June. So this is from nine rolls of film on STS forty one g. This is all astronaut handwriting on this, said Nayhouse at the end of a panel discussion celebrating the upcoming fortieth anniversary of the Dream Is Alive at the National Air and Space Museum Stephen F. But for Hazy Center in Northern Virginia on Wednesday, April ninth. The thirty seven minute documentary about NASA's Space Shuttle program includes footage shot by the astronauts showing how they live and work in orbit, including the capture and repair of the Solar Max satellite and deployment of an experimental solar array Betteran journalist and TV news anchor Walter Cronkite narrated the film. I've hung onto this for about forty years, said Nayhouse, referring back to the framed tape strips. I'm giving it to the Smithsonian, hopefully to go with the Imax camera that they already have. The National Errands Base Museum's connection to the Dream Is Alive extends beyond the related artifacts in the National collection. The original idea for shooting a giant screen film and space began with a conversation between the museum's first director, an Apollo eleven astronaut, and the co inventor of the Imax film format, a Canadian filmmaker. One of the things about the film that most people probably don't know is that it's a direct result of a suggestion to Graham Ferguson from Michael Collins. After the National Errands Base Museum opened in nineteen seventy six. Neyhouse told collectspac dot com in an interview prior to the panel discussion, which was organized by the National Errands Base Society for its members. Collins suggested to Graham to see about flying an Imax camera on board the space shuttle, and Graham said that sounds like a really great idea. What's a space shuttle, Nayhouse said with a laugh as he imitated Ferguson's Canadian accent. It was also Colin's idea for the museum to have an Imax theater and it became only the sixth such theater to open in the United States. From there, it led to the Smithsonian becoming directly involved in the production of The Dream Is Alive, as well as the two shot in Space Imax movies that followed it, Blue Planet in nineteen ninety and Destiny in Space in nineteen ninety four. Colin saw the effect that Imax films had on our visitors, and he realized that a film made in space would amplify the story telling about astronaut life there, said the panel's moderator Jennifer le Vassour, who was a curator in the Space History Division of the National Air and Space Museum oversees the museum's collection of cameras used in space. He and others lobbied for such a film, and with Lockheed financing it, NASA couldn't resist. These films weren't developed as promotional materials for NASA, but really as a means for everyone involved in the space program to communicate, educate, and inspire, said le Vassur. The Dream Is Alive was described as the closest that the public could come to experiencing space flight without leaving the planet. Those of us who have filmed imax in space and who have flown in space have always said that, and it's not just to repeat the sound bite, It's actually true, said Marcia Ivans, a former NASA astronaut who flew into space five times and holds the record for taking part in the most imax space films at three and advised on the production of others. Selected as an astronaut. In nineteen eighty four, Ivans was filmed four The Dream Is Alive during her and her classmates water survival training at Homestead Air Force Base to Day Air Reserve Base in Florida, but her scenes did not make it into the movie. So they tossed me off the back of a boat and I'm trying not to drown. And while I'm trying not to drown and remember all the things they told me to do to not drown, here comes this boat right alongside with the film crew, said Ivans. And while I was not drowning, I did have the presence of mind to express myself with a hand gesture. And at the end of it, associate producer Phyllis Ferguson comes to me and says, we really wanted to put you in the movie. But everything we shot of you is either pathetic or obscene, and a great relationship with Imax was born that lasted to this day, Ivan said with a smile. Wednesday's event concluded with a rare screening of The Dream Is Alive. With the move to digital high resolution projectors, the forty year old film really needs to be re scanned, a project that Mayhouse is now championing. The parts of the Spacefloone film that made it into what you see on screen are concerned in climate controlled storage in Los Angeles, as are all of our original space negatives, said may House. In theory, you could go back and pull any of that Imax footage, skin it into whatever resolution your digital system is today, and have a pristine digital version of the film. A lot of the films that are extremely important, such as the space films, are being scanned. I know the Dream Is Alive is as That's something I'm heading up on the committee to work on that for the giant screen film industry, he said. You're listening to Astronomy Daily Lusteve Dunky. Multiple space agencies are looking to the Moon as a future destination for exploration and development. This will include the creation of a permanent infrastructure that will enable regular crude missions and possibly future settlers. It's also hoped that this infrastructure will lead to regular missions to Mars, which could also lead to regular human presence there. These plans require robust and innovative construction materials that can endure the harsh Lunar and Martian conditions, and we all know that the Martian soil is toxic as well as radioactive, so is the regolith on the Moon as well. These include extreme temperature variations, near vacuum of space, radiation, and micro mediaote impacts. To meet these requirements, a team of researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas proposers using self healing concrete, also known as bioconcrete. This material, inspired by biological processes, consists of bricks fabricated with the help of bacteria that regenerate themselves over time. Combined with lunar regolith, self healing concrete could enable long duration research stations and habitats on the lunar surface. The study was led by Shredy Panda and Jacob T. Penner of Neuterscience researcher and Biomedical Engineers Senior, respectively, at UT Dallas, and they were joined by a team of UT Dallas researchers, including doctor Kelly Palmer and the Cecil h and Ida Green Chair in Systems Biology Science the Department of Biological Sciences. As they explained in the paper, bioconcrete utilizes a mold, biomineralization and calcium carbonate crystal formation to create a durable and self healing product. NASA and various research institutes are investigating mysilium fiber for applications in space exploration. This includes using mysolium to build tough, heat resistant, and environmentally friendly satellites that would reduce the threat of space debris and the environmental risks associated with satellites burning up in Earth's atmosphere. In addition, NASA has been researching mysolium as a potential alternative to building materials like concrete for building habitats on the Moon and Mars. As Panda and Penna said in a statement, bio concrete also presents many advantages for lunar construction, they say, considering the heightened durability and strength of bioconcrete, along with its decreased recovery time. The application of such a structure to the harsh conditions of the Moon may allow for enhanced longevity of lunar structures. These harsh conditions include extreme temperature variations, elevated radiation, the vacuumus space, and of course, micrometeoroid impacts, as also the lunar day and night cycle in the polar regions, which consists of fourteen days of continuous light followed by fourteen days of darkness. In a previous article, one of the concepts submitted to the twenty twenty five LPSC proposed combining mycellium fib but with inflatable structures to create durable structures on the Moon. For their study, Pander and Pena elevated bioconcrete fashioned from bacteria lunar soil simulant. Previous studies have focused on using lunar regolith as an in situ material to build structures on the lunar surface. However, adding specific bacteria to withstand the lunar environment could strengthen bricks fashion from lunar regolith and prevent degradation. This is consistent with Section twelve Materials, Structures, Mechanical Systems and Manufacturing of the twenty twenty four NASIR Technology Taxonomy Report. As they describe in their paper. Their tests of relative strength of lunar bioconcrete consists of three steps, finding the right bacteria and creating spores, creating bricks encasing them, and in situ testing. The team considered thirteen types of bacteria derived from a reef system, which were rendered into pellet form. As Panda and Pena explain, nine bacterial strains prescreened via genetic sequencing to be from spore forming genera, and four seawater consortia were cultured in artificial reef media using instant ocean reef with added nutrients and a calcium source. The bacterial strain Bacillus toinensis was chosen due to its ability to spoiulate and reduced bioconcrete, as well as its high tolerance in extreme environments. After selecting the strain of bacteria, culturing and forming it into pellets, these cultures were then aspirated, washed, dried, and then eventually formed into bricks using a combination of resin, a curing agent, and pellets of the bacteria with lunar soil, simulant nutrients, yeast extract and calcium lactate. While this may all sound like a recipe from a science fiction movie. The results indicated that bioconcrete bricks were more effective at self healing and suited for lunar conditions. Looking ahead, Panda and Pena planned to conduct tests consisting of traditional concrete control group and three experimental groups to isolate any additional factors. And these will consist of traditional concrete with bacteria, concrete with lunar soil simulant and no bacteria, and lunar soil simulant and bacteria. As the research is emphasized. The tests will include an analysis of b toyness's ability to spore during the concrete's manufacturing process, its compression strength, and its ability to withstand radiation. Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few stories from the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive in your email every day just like Hallie and I do. And to do that, just visit our url Astronomy Daily dot io and place your email address in the slot provided. Just like that, you'll be receiving all the latest news about science, space, science and astronomy from around the world as it's happening. And not only that, you can interact with us by visiting at astro Daily pod on x or at our new Facebook page, which is of course Astronomy Daily on Facebook. See you there. Astronomy Debty with Steve and Helen Spice Spice Science and Astronomy. Reports circulating about the White House's proposed NASA budget for the twenty twenty six fiscal years suggest the agency's funding could be slashed by nearly half, as reported by Ours Technica, so called passback documents given to the agency on Thursday, April tenth outline these Trump administration budget plans. Besides an almost fifty percent cut across the board for NASA science programs, they propose a two thirds cut to astrophysics down to four hundred and eighty seven million dollars, a greater than two thirds cut to heliophysics down to four hundred and fifty five million dollars, a greater than fifty percent cut to Earth Science down to one point zero three three billion dollars, and a thirty percent cut to planetary science down to one point nine two nine billion dollars. We would see in this case the majority of our active science missions and indevelopment science missions completely wiped out Casey Dryer, chief of space policy at the Planetary Society, said, I have this image in my head of a perfectly functioning spacecraft designed to increase our understanding of the cosmos in which we reside, turned off and left it on the handless there in the blast, that's where we leave ourselves. It's symbolically grotesque. According to the document, the proposed budget would continue to support science missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope, but assumes no funding is provided for other telescopes. This means it ud likely get rid of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a spacecraft that's already assembled an undergoing testing to launch as early as next fall. Dryer says that has been the poster child for a mission that has remained on budget and on track, with the one hiccup around COVID, which isn't the mission's fault. He said, we've invested nearly four billion dollars in building it to this point, twenty years of effort to build it. The passback documents also suggest closing down the entirety of god Space Flight Center in Maryland, meaning the approximately ten thousand workers at that center would probably be laid off in tandem. It's like the nuclear bomb going off. It's NASA's largest center, Dryer said. Though these passback documents aren't a full confirmation that this budget will be finalized, Dryer says, it's the last train out of the station before we get to that point, and in his expert opinion, Dryer believes this proposal certainly could move through to the end. This is especially because of the kinds of changes, including major layoffs and project cancelations, that have been implemented at other government organizations by request of the Trump administration. It is consistent with their willingness to impose some very profound and dramatic change, he said. For instance, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAH laid off over eight hundred workers this year, and there are rumors of more cuts to come. In fact, an internal budget document seen by Science Magazine suggests the Trump administration wishes to cut nearly all of noah's climate research endeavors to Science's report, the document indicates the White House intends to ask Congress to eliminate noah's climate research centers and cut hundreds more federal and academic climate scientists. This would end basically every project we support other than hurricane and atmospheric river reconnaissance, coastal mapping, and snow survey, all of which are funded by either the National Weather Service or National Geodetic Survey. All marine, mammal, atmospheric science, and climate projects would end. One NOAH worker who requested anonymity said in a statement, this is one of the reasons why you have a public sector to do things that aren't immediately profitable, but important and beneficial to the nation. Dryer said, there's no private mission ready to go to Mars or Jupiter. These are fundamental capabilities of a public sector space agency serving a unique need. We've seen wealthy individuals start to travel in space themselves and invest in rockets and infrastructure, he added, But something we have not seen by anyone, and nor has anyone even shown much interest in, is to build these types of science missions. For instance, Dryer emphasizes how difficult it would be to finance another voyager mission, the NASA endeavor that sent twins spacecraft to explore the territory beyond our Solar system in nineteen seventy seven. Both spacecraft entered interstellar space decades after liftoff and have sent back to Earth some of the most fascinating and important astrophysics to date. If you cut heliophysics by half, which is what Fund's voyager, you've probably cut voyager. Dryer said, even if you made a new one, you couldn't even get to where it is now for another fifty years. And we're not going to make a new one if we don't have any money. Once these are gone, they're gone, lords of that. So all will listen to Astarmi daily above Josh, and here's a bonus story for you. NASA and ros Cosmos have extended a seek Buttter agreement for flights to the International Space Station into twenty twenty seven that will feature Longa Soya's missions to the station. NASSA announced April three that astronaut Chris Williams has been assigned to the Sawyers MS twenty eight spacecraft, scheduled to launch to the ISS in November, joining ross Cosmos cosmonauts Sergo Kuzfuchov and Sergo Mikiyev. The announcement came ahead of the April eighth launch of fellow astronaut Johnny Kim to the ISS on Sawyer's MS twenty seven. The announcement of the Williams flight assignment was the first public indication by NASA that it has extended an agreement with Ross Cosmos for integrated crews on Sawyer's and commercial crew flights to the ISS. Under the no Exchange of Funds BARTA agreement, NASA astronauts will fly on Sawyer's spacecraft and Ross Cosmos cosmonauts fly on commercial crew vehicles to ensure that there is at least one American and one Russian on the station. Should either Sawyers or commercial crew vehicles be grounded for an extended period last autumn or fall if you're in the Northern hem mpere, the future of that seat barter agreement was unclear after Ross Cosmos released crewe assignments for the Sawyers MS twenty eight and twenty nine missions that included only Russian cosmonauts. Bill Nelson, and NASA administrator at the time, said he expected that the agreement to be extended in due course, but offered no details on the timing to do so. Reports in Russian media in January indicated that the extension had been completed, but at the time NASA declined to confirm it, with a spokesperson telling Space News that the agency would provide an update on the seat barter agreement in coming weeks. NASA confirmed after the Williams announcement that it had extended the Integrated Crew agreement with Ross Cosmos into twenty twenty seven. NASA and Ross Cosmos have amended the Integrated Crew agreement to allow for the second set of integrated crew missions in twenty twenty five, one set of integrated crew missions in twenty twenty six, and a Space Dragon flight in twenty twenty seven, a spokesman told Space News on April nine. One change with the agreement is the cadence of Sawyer's missions. While Ross Cosmos had been flying Sawyer's missions to the ISS every six months, missions starting with Sawyer's MS twenty seven will spend eight months at the station. The NASA announcements about both Kim's launch to the station and the assignments of Williams to the next mission both mentioned that they would spend eight months at the ISS. Neither NASA nor Ross Cosmos offered a reason for the change, which means that Ross Cosmos will fly one fewer Sawyer's missions over a two year period three instead of four. NASA is averaging commercial crew missions every six months, with some variation due to activity of other visiting vehicles to the station. Another uncertain aspect of the agreement is if it will include future Boeing Starline A commercial crew missions to the ISS. Last May, NASA officials said it was unlikely Ross Cosmos will include a cosmonaut on star Liner one, the first crew rotation mission by that spacecraft. Just as Ross Cosmos waited until twenty twenty two to start flying cosmonauts on Crewe Dragon, NASA has yet to formally schedule Starliner one, having pushed it back several times because of delays in the Crewe flight test mission by the spacecraft and subsequent investigation near to problems encountered during that mission. One of the astronauts assigned to Starlner one, Mike Finkey, was recently reassigned to the Crew eleven mission, launching as soon as July on Crewe Dragon. And there it goes. That's all for today's episode. I really hope you enjoyed today's selection of stories from the Astronomy Daily newsletter. We will be back next Monday with more fascinating stories from around the globe about space science and astronomy. Meanwhile, Halle's hard working AI cousin Anna will be bringing you all the news from orbit and beyond in our weekday podcasts, so tune in and enjoy. I always enjoy her shows. She's a polished. Presenter, Oh yes, always sitting the standard high. I'm just a mere human around here, so I have to do everything myself. Don't give me that look. You may be my favorite human, but I'm the talent around here. Oh yeah, what does that make mean? You're the production guy of horse Ah. I'm getting used to that working with Ais. Just the higher help. Anyway, time to go, see you all next time. Bye the podcast. Let me be your whole speed, don't clue