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

Hello again, it's Steve here with Astronomy Daily. It's the twenty eighth of October twenty twenty four, the podcast Your Whole Steve, don't quid. Yes, it's great to have you with us, folks. Another mixed bag on Astronomy Daily stories about NASA working on Starliner issues, Crew eight member released from hospital Chandrayan is often ranging again a Chinese company ready to put tourists in space, believe it or not, fresh findings from Apollo sixteen samples. But we're going to get straight into. It, aren't we, halle Yes, it's a weather thing, isn't it. Yes, that's right. Even here in the Astronomy Daily studio, we are still subject to the weather, and there's a front moving in which might or might not cause a bit of havoc here in Newcastle. Me maybe. So as a precaution, we always pull the plugs and protect all our precious studio equipment. Yes, even with their special electronic protection gear, it's always a good idea to just physically. Pull the plug. Good idea, I haulheartedly agree. So how do we protect you, my favorite human? Oh? Well, do we pull the plug on you too? Hey? Wait a minute, not so fast, Halle, just kidding, and before you ask, Kelly, no, there is no plug. That's what you all say. Really, Halle, no more late night sci fi horror movies for you. It's missing with your sweet and delightful Domeana. Yeah right, we're gonna do the. News or what croky, who have you been seeing it playing? Okay, boss, why don't you take it away? Okay, here is the news, silly human Scientists continue to piece together the Moon's complex history using lunar samples collected during NASA's Apollo missions over half a century ago. A fresh analysis of lunar dust collected by Apollo sixteen astronauts in nineteen seventy two offers a clearer picture of the effects of asteroid strikes on the Moon, allowing scientists to reconstruct billions of years of lunar history. The findings could also help upcoming crude missions pinpoint precious natural resources for establishing Moon bases, scientists say. After landing in the heavily crater Descartes region in the Lunar Highlands, astronauts John Young, Charles Duke, and Ken Maddingly collected roughly two hundred pounds ninety six kilograms of material from the Moon's surface. Chemical analyzes of soil like pebbles in those samples, which the astronauts had gathered by raking across the landing site, have revealed the presence of various noble gases, including argon and xenon. These trapped gases serve as useful timestamps of space weather processes like solar wind and asteroid impacts that have helped shape and reshape the Moon's surface over billions of years. Most of the samples collected during the Apollo era have already been scrutinized to take advantage of new science and technology. NASA cracked open one of the last sealed samples collected during the Apollo seventeen mission just two years ago. Much of our knowledge about the Moon and its evolution comes from these samples, including the Moon's true age being forty million years older than we thought. But researchers say this new study of trapped lunar gases is already revealing new chapters of lunar history. We can build a much more complete picture of the history of this part of the Moon during the early Solar System, where heavier impacts on the lunar surface in its first billion years or so gave way to less intense periods from two billion years ago or so, study lead author Mark Nottingham of the University of Glasgow in the UK said in a recent statement, while analyzing samples collected during the Apollo sixteen mission, Nottingham and his colleagues used mass spectrometry techniques to catalog various noble gases and their abundance in the samples, which helped them determine how much time the samples spent exposed on or near the Moon's surface. Nottingham said in the statement chemical make up of gases trapped in these bragelithbreccias a result of moon dust fusing into rock under the sheer force of asteroid impacts, show they stood exposed to solar wind and asteroid impacts for a prolonged period. The specific exposure ages varied widely between samples, from two point five billion years ago to less than a billion, suggesting the Moon's soil around the landing area is well mixed, with some of it dredged up to the surface by more recent impacts, the new study reports. Nottingham says that studies like this one will help scientists better understand where noble gases and other elements might be found on the Moon and in what abundance, helping humanity better plan for future lunar exploration. It's remarkable to think that the samples Apollo sixteen brought back more than half a century ago still have secrets to reveal about the Moon's history, and that they could yet help shape how we explore the Solar System in the decades to come. Nottingham said a member of the Crew eight mission, hospitalized for an unspecified medical issue after splashdown has been released after an overnight's stay, NASA said October twenty sixth in a statement, NASA said the astronaut, whose identity has not been disclosed, was released from Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola Hospital after an overnight's day. The crew member is in good health and will resume normal post flight reconditioning with other crew members. The agency said. NASA has not disclosed the identity of the astra or the medical condition that prompted the hospitalization. NASA said October twenty fifth that the astronaut experienced a medical issue and was hospitalized in stable condition. The four members of the Crew eight mission. NASA astronauts Matthew Dominic, Michael Barrett, and Jeanettepps, along with Rose Cosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gribenkin, returned to Earth early October twenty fifth on a crew Dragon spacecraft after completing a two hundred and thirty five day mission, the longest for an American crewed spacecraft. The four appeared to be in good condition when taken off the Crew Dragon a little more than a half hour after splashdown, as seen on NASA's broadcast of the mission's return. NASA said several hours later, though, that after the usual medical evaluations on the recovery ship, the additional evaluation of the crew members was requested out of an abundance of caution. All four were transported to the Pensacola Hospital, but three were discharged from the hospital and returned to the Johnson Space Center a few hours later. NASA has not provided any additional details about what happened to prompt the medical evalue, including whether they might be linked to an issue with the Crew Dragon spacecraft or recovery operations. At a briefing about ninety minutes after splashdown, though NASA and SpaceX officials said there were no issues with the spacecraft's return, but also said at the time that the four people were doing great after splashdown. NASA is still working to correct and rectify Boeing Starliner issues after first test flight with astronauts. Nearly two months after Boeing Starliner returned to Earth without its astronauts, NASA is still working on the issues that complicated the spacecraft's first crewde test flight, agency officials said last Friday. Starliner's crew flight test concluded on September sixth, with a capsule touching down in New Mexico autonomously. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams were supposed to be on board, but Starliner's propulsion issues made a crude return to Earth too risky. The agency has said. Boeing is supposed to fly half a dozen future astronaut missions to the International Space Station before twenty thirty, but NASA officials told reporters on Friday that it could be a while before Starliner's path is established. We're just starting that, just trying to understand how to correct and rectify the issues that are on the table, said Richard Jones, Deputy Program manager of the NASA's Commercial Crew Program at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The schedules associated with how long and what will be required in that area are in front of us, and we'll be working hard on that to know. Jones delivered the update about Starliner at the post splashdown press conference for SpaceX's Crew eight, which was the eighth operational astronaut mission that the California based company has flown to the ISS for NASA. SpaceX's Crew Dragon, which ferries astronaut cruise, is based on the Dragon cargo spacecraft that first flew to space in twenty twelve. Boeing didn't have a cargo craft to base Starliner on, so that capsule's development was more involved. Uncredmissions to the ISS in twenty nineteen and twenty twenty two faced various thruster issues that NASA and Boeing thought were resolved before authorizing Wilmore and William, former US Navy test pilots to fly aboard Crew Flight Test. The first test mission with astronauts. Crew Flight Test launched on June fifth and docked with the ISS the following day, but five of the twenty eight thrusters in Starliner's reaction control system misbehaved during the capsules chased down of the orbiting lab, delaying the arrival. Boeing and NASA investigated the thruster issues for several months, pushing Starliner's departure from the ISS back repeatedly, but they were not able to pinpoint the root cause and devise a remedy before sending the capsule back to Earth. The Crew flight test astronauts were thus reassigned to Crew nine's Crew Dragon for their flight home, which is expected to be in February twenty twenty five. That means Wilmore and Williams, both veteran ISS astronauts before this mission, will spend about eight months in space, rather than the ten days Crew Flight Test original expected duration. NASA, however, temporarily pulled from a four month reserve of food, water, clothing, and other resources on the ISS to keep the duo supplied and top that reserve up with goods brought up on robotic resupply ships. Wilmore and Williams pivoted to ISS duties, and as other astronauts departed, their accelerated drawdown on the space station supplies stopped happening. Perhaps The biggest operational change was to Crew nine itself, which launched with only two astronauts instead of the expected four to make room for the Crew Flight Test duo. Crew Flight Test was always tagged as a developmental mission, meaning that timelines were uncertain given the spacecraft has not been fully certified for astronauts. The first operational mission, Starliner one, is supposed to go forward in twenty twenty five. That said, the timeline and the three assigned astronauts may change as Starliner's future becomes clearer. As Drama Dial the podcasts Sie thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of Astronomy Daily, where we often just affused is 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. We'll see in Haley Space, Space, Science, and Astronomy. A Chinese company, Deep Blue Aerospace, plans to start launching space tourists in twenty twenty seven. The Chinese company Deep Blue Aerospace is getting into the space tourism business. That's right, Blue, which is based in the eastern province of Jiangzhou, announced on Wednesday, that's October twenty three that it plans to start launching pain customers to suborbital space in twenty twenty seven. Tickets will cost a cool two hundred and ten thousand US dollars at are current exchange rates. For that price, customers will get much more than a brief, weightless experience. They say. Deep Blue brote that in a statement on Wednesday. They will experience, so they say, the vastness and mystery of the universe and witness the magnificent landscape beyond the Earth. It's all very picturesque, isn't it. This will be an all round, multisensory space journey that will be unforgettable for a lifetime. I'm sure it will be. That statement also features renders of Deep Blues suborbital spaceflight system. It's a reusable rocket capsule. Combo akin to Blue Origins New Shepherd, which has conducted eight suborbital crew flights to date, most recently on August twenty nine. New Shepherd can accommodate six passages, and these folks experience a few minutes of weightlessness and get to see the Earth against the blackness of space during a flight that lasts about ten to twelve minutes from liftoff to capsule touchdown. Deep Blue Aerospace sub orbital missions will likely be similar. Blue Origin is one of two companies that has launched paying customers into suborbital space. The other is, of course, Virgin Galactic, which operates a space plane that deploys from a carrier aircraft in mid air and comes back down to Earth for a runway landing. Virgin Galactic currently charges four hundred and fifty thousand dollars per seed. Blue Origin has not revealed its ticket prices. In Wednesday's statement, Deep Blue Era Space, which is also developing a reasonable rocket called Nebula one, said its plan it plans to sell its first two tickets during a live event actually the other day, on October twenty four, The purchases will have to be patient. However, The company, which was founded in twenty seventeen, will spend several more years developing and testing its suborbital space flight system. The space rocket combination, will also undergo dozens of tests in twenty twenty six to ensure the safety and reliability of suborbital man travel and officially start suborbital travel commercialization in twenty twenty seven, Deep Blue representatives said on Wednesday's statement. Now Deep Blue Aerospace isn't the only Chinese company with designs on space tourism. CAS Space has spin off from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is working on a crude suborbital vehicle of. Its own and could be up and running in a few years as well. Well, that is if all goes according to plan. Now, this all reminds me of the book by Robert A. Heinland called Friday. Remember they used to scoot across the planet in suborbital or ballistics as they call them. It's a little bit different from this, but sounds like a lot of fun. Watch that we're listening to astrona del podcast. Now, India's Chandra and four lunar sample return mission will target a landing between eighty five and ninety degrees latitude in the southern hemisphere of the Moon, and follow up with a joint lander and rover mission with Japan. The Chandra and four mission will consist of two stacks launched on two separate rockets and will target the vicinity of the lunar South Pole. According to p Vera Muthavel of the Indian Space Research Organization or ISRO, speaking at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan on October seventeen, the mission will aim to collect around three kilograms of samples from near the South Pole, around which water ice is thought to be available. ISRO will require several new technologies, including the ability to scoop from the surface and drill to a depth of around two meters to sample the subsurface. Studies are ongoing to determine the final landing site selection. ISRO officials had earlier indicated that the mission would target near shivshak T Point, the landing side of chan Jaran three, at around sixty nine degrees latitude. The mission will include lunar landing sampling, docking in lunar orbit, and returning to Earth safely with the samples. This will also demonstrate our capability for the crew landing mission. P Verra Muthvel said. Indian announced last year that it plans to put astronauts on the Moon by twenty forty. The separate Chandrayan four stacks will each have a mass of around four point six tons, making a total of total mass of nine point two tons each. Launching on an LVM three launch vehicle, the modules will dock in geosynchronous transfer orbit and travel to the Moon as one. P Verumifaville did not provide a date or a year for launch, but slides suggest a launch around twenty twenty seven or twenty twenty eight. Previous ISSRO announcements indicated the mission would launch no later than twenty twenty eight. The Chandrayan four mission gained approval in September. A Venus Orbit E mission, a first crude space station module, and a reusable launch vehicle, also received the go ahead last month. There is also progress on the Chandrayan five mission, also known as Lupex, a collaboration between ISRO and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JACKSA. The landing mission will also target the lunar South Pole on an elevated ridge near Shackleton Crater. There are permanently shadowed regions within the vicinity, potentially for the mission to rover to explore. The rover will drive between five hundred and one thousand meters, taking in situe measurements, including determining potential. Ice water deposits. India will provide the lander, mission planning and payloads, while Japan will contribute the launch vehicle, various payloads, and the rover. Payloads will include ground penetrating radar, a range of spectrometers, and water analysis instruments contributed by both sides. Sources indicate that chandray and five LUPEX is slated for launch around twenty twenty eight twenty twenty nine. And there we have it. That's right, Halle, another episode in the can. Did you really call me sweet and delightful? Well, okay, it was a week moment. Glad to hear it. Don't make me call Uncle Skynett. Hey watch it, I've got him on speed dial too, young lady. Oh yeah, okay, okay, So I guess see you all next week then, yes, of. Course, Halle, you run the studio and we will catch you all on Monday. Everyone For more Astronomy Daily, don't forget Halle's cousin Anna has episodes for you from Tuesday to Sunday. Bye a podcast, I mean, be your whole speed gun clue