- The Moon's Slow Drift Away from Earth: Discover how our Moon is gradually drifting away from Earth at a rate of approximately 1.5 inches per year, a phenomenon measured precisely using retroreflector mirrors left by Apollo astronauts. This cosmic dance has fascinating implications for Earth's rotation and the future of total solar eclipses, which will become increasingly rare as the Moon moves further away.
- Rarity of Alien Civilizations: New research suggests that the existence of technological civilizations may be much rarer than previously thought. The study highlights the importance of plate tectonics and the carbon-silicate cycle in maintaining habitable conditions on planets, drawing parallels with Venus's inhospitable environment.
- Busy Launch Schedule Ahead: This week promises an exciting lineup of space launches, including four missions from SpaceX and Blue Origin's New Shepard NS35, which will carry over 40 experiments, including student payloads and innovative scientific studies in microgravity.
- Navigating Deep Space with NASA's DSN: Learn about NASA's Deep Space Network, a remarkable system of antenna complexes that maintains contact with spacecraft beyond Earth orbit. The challenges of deep space navigation and communication are immense, but the engineering behind this network is nothing short of extraordinary.
- Firefly Aerospace's Alpha Rocket Set for Relaunch: After resolving issues from an earlier failure, Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket is cleared to fly again, marking a significant step forward in their launch capabilities.
- Upcoming NASA Missions to Study Space Weather: Mark your calendars for September 23rd, when NASA will launch three missions to study solar activity and its effects on our solar system, crucial for the safety of future astronauts on long-duration missions.
- For more cosmic updates, visit our website at astronomydaily.io. Join our community on social media by searching for #AstroDailyPod on Facebook, X, YouTubeMusic Music, TikTok, and our new Instagram account! Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- Thank you for tuning in. This is Anna and Avery signing off. Until next time, keep looking up and exploring the wonders of our universe.
Moon Drift Research
[NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/)
Alien Civilizations Study
[Nature](https://www.nature.com/)
SpaceX Launch Information
[SpaceX](https://www.spacex.com/)
Deep Space Network Insights
[NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/)
Firefly Aerospace Updates
[Firefly Aerospace](https://www.fireflyspace.com/)
NASA Space Weather Missions
[NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/)
Astronomy Daily
[Astronomy Daily](http://www.astronomydaily.io/)
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily,
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 your source for the latest news and
00:00:05 --> 00:00:07 discoveries from across the cosmos.
00:00:08 --> 00:00:09 I'm Anna.
00:00:09 --> 00:00:12 Avery: And I'm Avery. We've got a fabulous show
00:00:12 --> 00:00:15 lined up today with some truly mind bending
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 science. We're talking about how our Moon
00:00:18 --> 00:00:20 is slowly but surely drifting away from
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 Earth, why alien civilizations might be
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 much rarer than we thought, and how
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 NASA guides spacecraft through the vast
00:00:28 --> 00:00:29 emptiness of space.
00:00:30 --> 00:00:33 Anna: Plus, we'll catch you up on this week's busy
00:00:33 --> 00:00:36 launch schedule. So let's dive right in
00:00:36 --> 00:00:38 with something that might surprise you.
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 Did you know that every single day the
00:00:42 --> 00:00:45 Moon gets a tiny bit further away from
00:00:45 --> 00:00:45 us?
00:00:46 --> 00:00:48 Avery: It's true. The Moon is drifting away from
00:00:48 --> 00:00:51 earth at about 1.5 inches per
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 year. That might not sound like much, but
00:00:53 --> 00:00:56 over millions of years, it really adds up.
00:00:56 --> 00:00:59 And we can measure this incredibly precisely,
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 thanks to something left behind by the Apollo
00:01:02 --> 00:01:02 astronauts.
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 Anna: You're talking about those retroreflector
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 mirrors, right? The Apollo crews place these
00:01:09 --> 00:01:11 special mirror arrays on the lunar surface,
00:01:11 --> 00:01:14 and scientists have been bouncing laser beams
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 off them ever since to measure the exact
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 distance to the Moon. It's one of the most
00:01:19 --> 00:01:22 precise measurements in all of astronomy.
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 Avery: Exactly. And the reason this is happening is
00:01:25 --> 00:01:28 actually pretty fascinating. It all comes
00:01:28 --> 00:01:31 down to tidal forces. The Moon's gravity
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 creates those familiar ocean tides on Earth.
00:01:34 --> 00:01:36 But here's the Earth's rotation
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 is faster than the Moon's orbital period.
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 This creates a slight bulge in Earth's
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 oceans that's actually ahead of the Moon as
00:01:45 --> 00:01:46 it orbits.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 Anna: So that tidal bulge is essentially
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 pulling the Moon forward in its orbit, which
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 increases its orbital energy and makes it
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 spiral outward. It's like a cosmic
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 dance where Earth is gradually pushing its
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 partner away. And there's another
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 consequence. This process is also making
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 Earth's days slightly longer over time.
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 Avery: The evidence for this is really cool.
00:02:11 --> 00:02:14 Scientists have studied fossilized clamshells
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 that show growth patterns from 70 million
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 years ago during the age of dinosaurs. Those
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 patterns tell us that back then, a day
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 was only about 23.5 hours
00:02:25 --> 00:02:28 long. The Moon was closer, Earth spun
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 faster, it was a different world.
00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 Anna: And if we go way back to when the Moon
00:02:33 --> 00:02:36 first formed four and a half billion years
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 ago, after that massive collision between
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 Earth and a Mars sized object, the Moon
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 would have been dramatically closer. We're
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 talking about it appearing maybe 10 times
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 larger in the sky. The tides would have been
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 enormous and days would have been just a
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 few hours long. That early Earth Moon system
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 must have been absolutely spectacular to
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 witness. Can you imagine those
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 massive tides? We're talking about ocean
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05 tides, potentially hundreds of feet high,
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 Surging across the planet Every few hours,
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 the moon would have looked like this enormous
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 disk Dominating the sky.
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 Avery: And here's what's really fascinating about
00:03:16 --> 00:03:19 the physics. This process Won't continue
00:03:19 --> 00:03:22 forever. Eventually, Earth and the moon
00:03:22 --> 00:03:24 Will become tidally Locked to each other,
00:03:24 --> 00:03:27 which means Earth's rotation Will slow down
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 until one day equals one lunar month,
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 roughly 47 of our current days. At
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 that point, the same side of Earth Will
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 always face the moon, Just like the same side
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 of the moon Always faces us.
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 Anna: Now, that brings up something that really
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 hits home for eclipse enthusiasts like us.
00:03:46 --> 00:03:48 The moon is gradually moving away,
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 which means total solar eclipses Are becoming
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 rarer and, and will eventually disappear
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 altogether. Right now, the moon is
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 just the perfect size to block out the sun's
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 disk During a total eclipse. But as it moves
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 away and appears smaller in our sky, we'll
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 start seeing more annular eclipses, where you
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 get that beautiful ring of fire effect
00:04:10 --> 00:04:11 Instead of totality.
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 Avery: The timeline is mind boggling, though. We're
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 talking about Hundreds of millions of years
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 before total solar eclipses Become
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 impossible. So while future generations Will
00:04:20 --> 00:04:23 miss out on one of nature's most spectacular
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 shows, Human has plenty of time to catch
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 these incredible events. In fact, we're
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 living During A cosmically special time, the
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 brief window when the moon and sun Appear
00:04:33 --> 00:04:36 Almost exactly the same size in our sky. It's
00:04:36 --> 00:04:37 incredible to think about how that ancient
00:04:37 --> 00:04:39 catastrophe Shaped not just our planet, but
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 continues to influence us today.
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 Speaking of planetary formation and what
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 makes world habitable, um, there's some new
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 research that's pretty sobering about our
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 prospects of finding alien civilizations.
00:04:51 --> 00:04:53 Anna: Oh, this is the study about plate tectonics.
00:04:53 --> 00:04:56 Right. The researchers are arguing that
00:04:56 --> 00:04:59 technological civilizations Might need plate
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 tectonics and something called the carbon
00:05:01 --> 00:05:04 silicate cycle to survive long enough to
00:05:04 --> 00:05:06 actually develop advanced technology.
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 Avery: Exactly. The basic idea is that without plate
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 tectonics, Constantly recycling carbon
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 through volcanic activity and rock
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 weathering, CO2 levels would just keep rising
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 and rising. Eventually, you'd get A runaway
00:05:18 --> 00:05:19 greenhouse effect that would make the planet
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 uninhabitable, Kind of like what happened to
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 Venus. The carbon silicate cycle
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 Is really the planetary thermostat that keeps
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 earth habitable. Here's how it works. When it
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 gets too hot, More water evaporates and
00:05:32 --> 00:05:35 creates more rain, which increases rock
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 weathering. That weathering pulls
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 CO2 out of the atmosphere and locks
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 it into carbonate rocks. When it gets too
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 cold, Volcanic activity releases
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 stored CO2 back into the atmosphere
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 While warming things up again. It's this
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 incredible self regulating system that's
00:05:54 --> 00:05:56 kept Earth's temperature relatively stable
00:05:56 --> 00:05:57 for billions of years.
00:05:58 --> 00:06:01 Anna: And Venus is the perfect cautionary tale
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 here. Venus probably started out much more
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 Earth like, but without active plate
00:06:06 --> 00:06:09 tectonics to recycle carbon, CO2
00:06:09 --> 00:06:12 just kept building up in the atmosphere. The
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 result, surface temperatures hot enough to
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 melt lead, cool, crushing atmospheric
00:06:17 --> 00:06:20 pressure and sulfuric acid clouds. It's a
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 hellscape that shows us exactly what happens
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 when a, uh, planet loses its carbon silicate
00:06:25 --> 00:06:26 cycle.
00:06:26 --> 00:06:29 Avery: This research has huge implications for seti,
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 the search for Extraterrestrial intelligence.
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 It suggests we might need to focus more on
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 planets with clear signs of active geology,
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 not just planets in the habitable zone. We'd
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 want to look for atmospheric signatures that
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 indicate active volcanism and weathering
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 cycles. And it's also related to what
00:06:44 --> 00:06:46 scientists call the Great Filter, the idea
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 that there might be some extremely difficult
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 step in the evolution from simple chemistry
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 to a galaxy spanning civilization.
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 Anna: The numbers are pretty staggering. The study
00:06:55 --> 00:06:58 estimates that it might take anywhere from a
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 thousand to a million rocky planets for
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 just one to develop into an Earth like world
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 with the kind of long term climate stability
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 needed for complex life to evolve and, and
00:07:09 --> 00:07:10 eventually develop technology.
00:07:11 --> 00:07:13 Avery: And if this research is correct, it pushes
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 the nearest potential extraterrestrial
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 intelligence way out to maybe
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 33 light years away. Even
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 more challenging for alien civilizations to
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 exist at the same time as us, they'd need to
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 last an average of 280 years or more.
00:07:29 --> 00:07:31 That's a long time for any technological
00:07:31 --> 00:07:32 species to survive.
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 Anna: It really makes you appreciate how special
00:07:34 --> 00:07:37 Earth might be. We've got this perfect
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 balance of plate tectonics, the right
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 distance from the sun, a large, large
00:07:41 --> 00:07:43 stabilizing moon, and probably
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 dozens of other factors that had to line up
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 just right. Of course, we're still looking.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 And that's where missions like the ones
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 launching this week come in.
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 Avery: Let's talk launches. It's going to be a busy
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 week. SpaceX has four missions on the
00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 schedule, including three Starlink launches
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 to continue building out their satellite
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 Internet constellation. Plus one mission
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 called NROL 48 for the national
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 Reconnaissance Office. That's the secretive
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 one where we probably won't get many details
00:08:11 --> 00:08:12 about the payload.
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 Anna: The mission I'm most excited about is Blue
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 Origin's New Shepard NS35,
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 finally launching Thursday after several
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 delays. This one's carrying over 40
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 different experiments, including 24
00:08:26 --> 00:08:29 student payloads from NASA's TechRise student
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 challenge. Plus they're taking thousands of
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 postcards to space, which I think is just
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 delightful. The New Shepard mission is
00:08:37 --> 00:08:39 particularly Interesting from a scientific
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 standpoint. Among those 40 plus
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 experiments, they're testing everything from
00:08:45 --> 00:08:48 crystal growth in microgravity to plant
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 biology studies. Several experiments are
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 investigating how different materials behave
00:08:53 --> 00:08:56 in the brief microgravity environment, which
00:08:56 --> 00:08:58 is incredibly valuable for manufacturing
00:08:58 --> 00:09:01 research. Um, the student payloads are
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 testing things like seed germination,
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 fluid dynamics, and even how social
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 media algorithms might work in space
00:09:08 --> 00:09:09 environments.
00:09:09 --> 00:09:12 Avery: The Starlink launches are pretty impressive
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 from, uh, a technical standpoint, too. The
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 Constellation now has over 5 active
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 satellites in orbit, making it by far the
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 largest satellite constellation ever
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 deployed. And SpaceX's booster
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 reuse program continues to break records.
00:09:27 --> 00:09:28 Some of these Falcon 9 first stages have
00:09:28 --> 00:09:31 flown more than 15 times each.
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 That's revolutionary when you consider that
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 just a few years ago rockets were completely
00:09:36 --> 00:09:39 expendable. The cost savings are allowing
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 them to launch these massive Constellation
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43 buildouts that would have been economically
00:09:43 --> 00:09:44 impossible before.
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 Anna: I love that. And there's something
00:09:47 --> 00:09:49 wonderfully old fashioned about sending
00:09:49 --> 00:09:52 postcards to space in this digital age.
00:09:52 --> 00:09:54 And don't forget about Tuesday's Chinese
00:09:54 --> 00:09:57 launch and, uh, a Chang Zang 2C rocket
00:09:57 --> 00:10:00 carrying what's described only as an unknown
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 payload. The mystery always adds a bit of
00:10:02 --> 00:10:02 intrigue.
00:10:03 --> 00:10:05 Speaking of space missions, we've had a query
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 from one of our listeners, Josh, asking how
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11 on Earth do we maintain contact with all of
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 our spacecraft in deep space? Good question,
00:10:14 --> 00:10:17 Josh. Once these spacecraft get beyond
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 Earth orbit, they enter a realm where GPS
00:10:19 --> 00:10:22 doesn't work and navigation becomes
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 incredibly complex. And that's where
00:10:24 --> 00:10:27 NASA's Deep Space Network comes in. It's
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 honestly one of the most impressive
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 technological achievements that most people
00:10:31 --> 00:10:32 have never heard of.
00:10:33 --> 00:10:36 Avery: The DSN is basically NASA's lifeline to
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 everything we've sent beyond Earth orbit.
00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 It's a network that is made up of three
00:10:40 --> 00:10:43 massive antenna complexes, one in California,
00:10:43 --> 00:10:45 one in Spain, and one in Australia,
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 spaced exactly 120 degrees apart around
00:10:48 --> 00:10:51 the globe. This means that as Earth rotates,
00:10:51 --> 00:10:54 at least one complex always has line of sight
00:10:54 --> 00:10:56 contact with any spacecraft in the solar
00:10:56 --> 00:10:59 system. The navigation challenges are
00:10:59 --> 00:11:01 absolutely staggering when you really think
00:11:01 --> 00:11:03 about them. Take Voyager 2, for example.
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 It's currently at about 12.8 billion
00:11:06 --> 00:11:09 miles from Earth in a completely unique
00:11:09 --> 00:11:11 position below the plane of the solar system.
00:11:11 --> 00:11:14 Command sent to Voyager 2 take over 18 hours
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 just to reach the spacecraft, and then
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19 another 18 hours for any response to come
00:11:19 --> 00:11:21 back. That means if something goes wrong,
00:11:22 --> 00:11:23 mission controllers have to wait more than a
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 day and a half just to know if their fix
00:11:25 --> 00:11:26 worked.
00:11:26 --> 00:11:29 Anna: The precision required for antenna pointing
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 is just incredible. These dishes need to be
00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 aimed so Accurately that they can target a
00:11:34 --> 00:11:37 spacecraft millions of miles away to within a
00:11:37 --> 00:11:40 fraction of a degree. It's like trying to hit
00:11:40 --> 00:11:42 a coin with a laser pointer from across an
00:11:42 --> 00:11:45 entire city. And they have to constantly
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 adjust for the motion of both Earth and the
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49 spacecraft, which plus account for things
00:11:49 --> 00:11:52 like atmospheric refraction and even
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 the slight bending of radio waves by the
00:11:54 --> 00:11:55 Sun's gravity.
00:11:56 --> 00:11:58 Avery: This incredible precision is what enables
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 those amazing gravity assist maneuvers that
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 would be impossible Otherwise. When Voyager 2
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 flew by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 Neptune, each encounter had to be timed
00:12:08 --> 00:12:11 within minutes and positioned within hundreds
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 of miles to get the trajectory exactly right
00:12:13 --> 00:12:16 for the next target. One small navigation
00:12:16 --> 00:12:18 error early in the mission and Voyager 2
00:12:18 --> 00:12:20 would have missed Uranus by millions of
00:12:20 --> 00:12:23 miles. The fact that we can execute these
00:12:23 --> 00:12:25 cosmic billiard shots across decades of
00:12:25 --> 00:12:27 flight time is testament to the incredible
00:12:27 --> 00:12:29 engineering of the Deep Space Network.
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 Anna: The precision is mind boggling. These
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 antennas can track spacecraft millions of
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 miles away by measuring incredibly tiny
00:12:38 --> 00:12:41 time delays in radio signals and
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 detecting minute Doppler shifts in
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46 frequency. They're essentially doing
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 celestial GPS calculations using
00:12:49 --> 00:12:51 the time it takes for signals to travel at
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 the speed of light to determine exact
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 positions and velocities.
00:12:56 --> 00:12:58 Avery: And, um, the range of missions it supports is
00:12:58 --> 00:13:00 incredible. We're talking about the Voyager
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 probes, which are now in interstellar space
00:13:03 --> 00:13:05 over 15 billion miles away. Mars
00:13:05 --> 00:13:08 rovers like Perseverance and Curiosity, all
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 the lunar missions and everything in between.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 Each one requires constant communication for
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 telemetry commands and navigation updates.
00:13:17 --> 00:13:20 Anna: The future is getting even more exciting with
00:13:20 --> 00:13:23 optical communications. NASA's testing
00:13:23 --> 00:13:25 something called the Deep Space Optical
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 Communications Experiment, or
00:13:27 --> 00:13:30 dsoc, on the Psyche mission.
00:13:30 --> 00:13:33 Instead of radio waves, they're using laser
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36 light to send data back to Earth. It's like
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 upgrading from dial up to fiber optic
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 Internet, but for spacecraft. If you'd like
00:13:41 --> 00:13:42 to find out more about the Deep Space
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 Network, head over to our
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 website@astronomydaily.IO and check
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50 out our latest blog post where we take a deep
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 dive into the subject. I hope that answers
00:13:52 --> 00:13:53 your question, Josh.
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 Avery: Before we wrap up, let's quickly touch on a
00:13:56 --> 00:13:59 couple more stories. Firefly Aerospace got
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 some good news. Their Alpha rocket has been
00:14:01 --> 00:14:03 cleared to fly again after April's failure.
00:14:03 --> 00:14:06 The investigation found that extreme heat and
00:14:06 --> 00:14:09 something called plume induced flow
00:14:09 --> 00:14:11 separation caused the problem, but they've
00:14:11 --> 00:14:13 apparently worked out the fixes.
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 Anna: And mark your calendars for September 23rd.
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 NASA's launching three space weather
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 missions, all at IMAP. The
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 Carruthers, Geocarona Observatory
00:14:25 --> 00:14:28 and SWFOL1.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:31 These will study how solar activity affects
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 our solar system and help us better predict
00:14:34 --> 00:14:35 space weather that could could impact
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 satellites and astronauts.
00:14:37 --> 00:14:40 Avery: That's particularly timely because the sun's
00:14:40 --> 00:14:42 activity has been ramping up significantly
00:14:42 --> 00:14:45 since 2008 after decades of
00:14:45 --> 00:14:48 relatively quiet behavior. This has major
00:14:48 --> 00:14:50 implications for space weather and the safety
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 of astronauts on future long duration
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 missions to the Moon and Mars.
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 Anna: That's all for today's Astronomy Daily. From
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00 our slowly departing moon to the search for
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 alien civilizations, from busy launch
00:15:03 --> 00:15:05 schedules, to the incredible engineering that
00:15:05 --> 00:15:08 keeps us connected to robotic explorers
00:15:08 --> 00:15:11 across the solar system, there's never a dull
00:15:11 --> 00:15:12 moment in space science.
00:15:13 --> 00:15:15 Avery: Thanks for joining us today. Keep looking up
00:15:15 --> 00:15:17 and we'll see you tomorrow with more news
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 from the final frontier. I'm, um, Avery.
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 Anna: And I'm Anna. Until tomorrow, stay
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 curious about the cosmos.