S03E43: Chang'e-6's Dark Side Dance & Starliner's Stellar Stride: A New Chapter in Space Endeavors

Hello again everybody, it's Steve here for another episode of Astronomy Daily. It's the sixth of April twenty twenty four with your whole Steven clue. That's right. Great to have you with us on another episode. Straight off the Astronomy Daily newsletter Stories to Hand. The other day, Chang E six straight out of China is heading for the Dark Side of the Moon. Sounds like a science fiction movie, doesn't it. They're going to be collecting only two kilos to kilos of dirt and stuff from the Dark side of the Moon and bringing it back home again. That's going to be interesting to watch. Also, Lucy mission has closed in on I was passing by dinkini Ish asteroid and you know how much I love asteroids. I love my floating rocks. And Lucy has assisted in the calculation on how old dink Ish actually is, so we'll look at that as well. And of course, something that we talked about last week in the bumper edition of Astronomy Daily. Starliner has made it to the launch pad and fingers crossed, it's going up. So we've got a two man crew on board that one and they're going to do the crew flight test the CFT. Great news. Lots of things happening in the skies in space science and science and astronomy. So let's keep looking up and having a look at that as we go. You're going to play that Space Force music again, aren't you cool? Where did you come from? Yes? Well you know Starliner is flying from the Space Force at base at Canaveral in Florida. You know it's only appropriate. Do me a fever? Oh what you don't want see? If you can restrain yourself, I don't know, Hallie. I mean it's Space Force. Yeah, pretty awesome. Here we go. Okay, no stop please, okay, okay, all right, So what have you got first today that I've stopped teasing you? Well, if you can behave yourself, I'll be looking at a massive solar flare that erupted on May second, just the other day. Also, NASA has announced a collectible patch celebrating the first female to command a US spacecraft. And finally, Happy Astronauts Day, everyone, really Astronauts Day, really really really, Yes, it's a thing, so I'll be talking about that too. Wow. Okay, well let's do it, hallie. Okies, The sun emitted a strong solar flare peaking at ten twenty two pm Eastern Time on May second, twenty twenty four. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are intense bursts of radiation emanating from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots. These flares are among the biggest explosive events in our solar system, visible primarily in the ultraviolet range. Flares impact Earth in a variety of ways. They can disrupt the ionosphere and interfere with GPS navigation and radio communications. They are also responsible for auroras, the beautiful natural light displays often seen in high latitude skies. This flare is classified as an X one point six flare. X class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. Solar flares are rated based on their intensity and potential impact on Earth. The classification system consists of five categories, A, B, C, M, and X. Each category has a tenfold increase in energy output compared to the previous one, with A being the weakest and X the strongest. Within each letter class, there is a finer scale from one to nine. For example, an X one flare is weaker than an X two flare, but significantly stronger than an M five flare. This classification helps scientists and relevant agencies predict potential impacts and prepare for space weather related disruptions. A collectible embroidered patch created to honour the first woman to command a US spacecraft, features a geometric pattern representing the glow of her Space Shuttle lifting off into the night sky. The colorful diamond shaped shards could also be seen as the figurative glass ceiling that Eileen Collins broke through on her way to the stars. The latest patch from the fifty nine thousand member space Hipster's group on Facebook. Each Eileen Collins Signature Edition emblem includes the astronauts autograph sewn into the design Sales of the patches benefit Taking Up Space, a non profit organization empowering middle school age Native American girls to soar beyond their barriers by sending them to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. The second woman to attend the US Air Force Test Pilot School, Collins was selected to become a NASA astronaut in nineteen ninety. She was the first woman to fly as the pilot on a Space Shuttle mission when she launched on STS sixty three in nineteen ninety five, and she flew again in the right side seat on STS eighty four two years later. Both flights visited the space station mir with the earlier being the first Shuttle mission to rendezvous with the Russian outpost and the latter the sixth to dock there. Then, in nineteen ninety nine, Collins became the first woman to command a US spacecraft, leading the STS ninety three crew aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on a mission to deploy to the Chundra X ray Observatory. Six years later, after the loss of Columbia on a subsequent mission, Collins led the orbiter fleet's return to flight, commanding the STS one fourteen crew on Shuttle Discovery. In total, Collins logged more than thirty six days in space over the course of her four missions. Collins was the twenty first US woman to fly into space and the twenty seventh worldwide. She was the three hundred and twenty eighth person to leave Earth's atmosphere and the three hundred and twenty first to orbit the planet. According to the Association of Space Explorer's Registry of Space Travelers. Collins penned her memoirs Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars in twenty twenty one. It is now the basis for an upcoming documentary Space Woman. Colin's signature edition patch depicts her history making STS ninety three launch and includes stars in its border to represent each of her Shuttle missions. Other stars in the emblem's design symbolize the first woman to fly into space, Soviet era cosmonaut Valentina teresh Kava, the first US female astronaut in space, Sally Ride, and the four women who have lost their lives in the pursuit of spaceflight and exploration, Judy Resnick Kristam of Copenachala and Laurel Clark. As with previous signature edition releases, the Collins patch has been produced by ab Emblem, the North Carolina based company that also is NASA's supplier and made the STS sixty three, STS eighty four, STS ninety three and STS one fourteen emblems that Collins wore into space and Happy National Astronaut Day twenty twenty four everyone as the inspiring president and CEO of Unify Good Music industry fixture Annie Ballero has presided over her successful artist management and marketing firm since two thousand and nine, before branching out into Unified Space Agency, which has expanded into the nation's biggest private talent management firm for astronauts. Emboldened with the company's tagline of hashtag Webelieve in Astronauts unify good partners with corporations or institutions to advise NASA's intrepid homegrown heroes on navigating partnerships in media, film, and television by creating a positive network of bridges between the worlds of space, travel, music, and pop culture. In twenty sixteen, Baliro envisioned an opportunity to create a wellspring of astronaut recognition by launching National Astronaut Day. This special occasion is now observed every May fifth, in salute to Mercury astronaut Alan Shepherd's historic first spaceflight aboard Freedom seven on May fifth, nineteen sixty one. This year, she's thrilled to spearhead the inaugural Astronaut rock Star Awards, an evolving event that celebrates the unique intersection of astronauts and music, with raal rock Stars handing out awards in three categories to astronauts, individuals and organizations who are pillars of support and pioneering voices in space exploration and STEM slash steam education. Included in this debut year's list of victors r astronaut Alan Shepherd, the first American in space. On May fifth, nineteen sixty one, astronaut Wendy Lawrence will present this Legacy Award to Allan's dot MGM Laura, also winning our high schooler esteemist Urdia Sanchez and eighteen year old Sophia Crowder it Girls Girl Empowering Initiative founder and Beyond former NASA astronaut and Intuitive Machines executive Colonel Jack d Ha Fisher, who oversaw the Odysseus Ode lunar landing this year as part of the IDAM one mission. In twenty twenty four, THEI dot AM one mission successfully landed the first spacecraft on the moon's South Pole region, marking the United States first return since Apollo seventeen, as well as the first private lunar lander on the Moon. Fisher's award will be presented by Rock greats Or at their Boston, Massachusetts show at Leader Bank Pavilion on July twentieth, twenty twenty four, in sync with the actual moon landing date from the Apollo eleven mission in nineteen sixty nine, the first time a human walked on the Moon. The Science Haven's initiative to provide one hundred telescopes to one hundred families across the un Back to you my favorite human astronomy with Steve and Halle Space Space, Science and Astronomy. Oh and as always, thank you so much Hallie for those stories, and 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 new Urlastronomy 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 parent podcast Facebook page which is Space Nuts Podcast Group. And we hope to see you there. And only a couple of days ago, China's last largest rocket has blasted off to space carrying chany Change six lunar probe for a nearly two month mission to retrieve rocks and soil from the far side of the Moon in a world first attempt. The long March five rocket lifted off on Friday from the weng Chang Space Launch Center on the southern island province of Hainan With the more than eight tong probe, the launch marks another milestone in China's luna and space space exploration program. Collecting and returning samples from the far side of the Moon is an unprecedented feat. Wu we're In, chief, designer of the country's lunar exploration program, told Xinhua, the state news agency. Chang E six is named after the Chinese mythical moon goddess. We know very little about the Moon's far side, he said. If Change six mission can achieve its goal, it will provide scientists with the first direct evidence to understand the environment and material composition of the far side of the Moon, which is of great significance. Like its predecessor, Chang E five, the Chang E six comprises an orbiter, a lander and an ascender as well as a mechanism that allows it to return to Earth. According to Xinhwa, the South Pole Aitken basin where Changi six is set to land is on the dark side of the Moon that remains mysterious as it perpetually faces away from Earth. In twenty eighteen, Chang E four gave China its first unmanned moon landing, also on the far side. In twenty twenty, Chang E five marked the first time humans retrieved lunar samples in forty four years, and Changi six could make China the first country to receive samples from the Moon's hidden side. The launch was attended by scientists, diplomats, and space agency officials from France, Italy, Pakistan, and the European Space Agency, all of which have moon studying payloads on board Chang E six, but no organizations from the United States applied to get a payload spot. According to Gping, deputy director of the China National Space Administration Lunar Exploration and Space Program, China is barred by US law from any collaboration with the US Space Agency NASA without congressional approval. After the probe separates from the rocket, it will take about four to five days to reach the Moon's orbit, and is expected to land on the Moon early in June. Once it lands, the probe will spend two days digging up about two kilograms of samples, with those sealed in a container. It'll then reconnect with the returner for the trip back to Earth. Chang E six is expected to land in the North China's Inner Mongolia in about fifty three days. Cs CNSA said the sample collected by Change six will have a geological age of approximately four billion years. Ge told journalists. Besides uncovering new information about the celestial body closest to Earth, Chang E six is part of a long term project to build a permanent research station on the Moon, the China and Russia led International Lunar Research Station ILRS. China's space program aims to put astronauts on the Moon by twenty thirty, bring back samples from Mars, and launch three lunar probe missions over the next four years. The next is scheduled for twenty twenty seven. Day the podcast now last. From November, NASA's Lucy mission conducted a flyby of the asteroid Dinkinish, one of the main Belt asteroids it will investigate as it makes its way to Jupiter. In the process, these spacecraft spotted a small Moonlit orbiting the larger asteroid, now named Selim, also known as Lucy's Baby. The moon let's name, in an Ethiopian name means peace, pays homage to the ancient human remains dubbed Lucy for or Dinkinish, that were unearthed in Ethiopia in nineteen seventy four. Using novel statistical calculations based on how the two bodies orbit each other, a Cornell led research team estimates that the Moonlit is only two to three million years old. I mean, what's in a million years? The research was led by Colby Merrill, a graduate student from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell. He was joined by Alexia Cubas, a researcher from the Department of Astronomy at Cornell, Alex J. Meyer, a PhD student at the UC Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science, and Sabina D Raducan, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of bern Their paper, and this is a great title age of one, five, two eight, three zero Dinkinish salam constrained by secular title biorp theory recently appeared on the nineteenth of April in Astronomy and Astrophysics. That sounds like fascinating reading. Merrill was also a part of the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection and Test You remember that one dart which collided with the Moonlet dimorphos on September twenty six, twenty twenty two, as part of the Lucy Mission. Merrill was also surprised to discover that Dinkinish was also a binary asteroid when the spacecraft flew past it on November one, twenty twenty three. They were fascinated to learn that the small moonlet was a contact binary consisting of two lobes that are piles of rubble that became stuck together long ago. That sounds a lot like some band members that I once worked with. The results agreed with one performed by the Lucy Mission based on analysis of surface craters, the more traditional method for estimating the age of asteroids. As Merril said in a recent Cornell Chronicle release, he says finding the ages of asteroids is important to understanding them, and this one is remarkably young. When compared to the age of the solar system, meaning it forms somewhat recently. Obtaining the age of this body can help us to understand the population as a whole. Binary asteroids are subject of fascination and don't I know it to astronomers because of the complex dynamics that go into creating them. On one hand, there are gravitational forces working on them that cause them to bulge and lose energy. At the same time, binary systems will also experience what is known as the Bindary, Yakovsky, O'Keefe, Radzyevsky paddock or biop effect, where exposure to solar radiation alters the rotation rate of the bodies. Eventually, these forces will balance out and reach a state of equilibrium for the system. For their study, Merrill and his team assumed that Selum formed from material ejected from the Denkinish before the biop effects slowed its rotation down. They also assumed that the system had reached a state of equilibrium and that the density of both objects was comparable. They then integrated asteroid data obtained from this Lucy mission and to calculate how long it would take Selim to reach its current state and after performing about one million calculations from varying parameters, they obtained the median age of about three million years old, with two million being the most likely result. This new method complements the previous age estimates of the Lucy mission and has several advantages. As their paper indicates, this mission can yield estimates based on asteroid dynamics alone and does not require close up images taken by spacecraft. It could also be more accurate where asteroid surfaces experience recent changes, and can be applied to the moonlets of other known binaries systems, which account for fifteen percent of near Earth asteroids and eas. This includes Dinnymus and Dimorphous, which are even younger. The researchers hope to apply their new method to this and other binary systems where the dynamics are well characterized even without close flybys, as at cubas. Used in tandem with crater accounting, this method could better help constrain a system's age. If we use two methods and they agree with each other, we can be more confident that we are getting meaningful age that describes the current state of the system. The podcast and just following up from our story last week on star Liner and Atlas V rocket rolled out to its launch pad on Saturday, also Star Wars Day, May the fourth be with you at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Oh should I play the theme music? Were the my blah blah blah? So an Atlas five rocket rolled out to the launch pad days before its historic first mission with astronauts atop the United Launch at Alliance booster was bowing star Liner spacecraft, which will also make its debut flight with humans on board, after launching no earlier than Monday May six. Well, that's today, let's have I'll have to check the calendar to see if that happened. The instantaneous launch window opens on at ten thirty four pm. So, well, that hasn't happened yet. Called Crew Flight Test or CFT, will send two veteran NASA astronauts and a former US Navy test pilots. ALOFT butsch Wilmore will command the mission and Sonny Williams will be the pilot to the duo quarantining at the nearby Space Center. If all goes to plan, Boeing will soon join SpaceX in sending astronauts for six months at a time to the ISS. That's after both companies received commercial crew contracts from NASA in twenty fourteen, valuing Boeing's at four point two billion back then compared to SpaceX's two point six billion. While SpaceX has sent twelve crude missions to the ISS since twenty twenty, including an astronaut test flight, Starline awaited extra four years. Boeing's first ISS flight in December twenty nineteen was dogged with so many computer glitches that Starliner never made it to its assigned orbit after the COVID nineteen pandemic erupted and dozens of fixes were implemented, and Starliner at last made a successful second uncrewed flight in May twenty twenty two. Crew flight test was also expected to launch earlier, most recently twenty twenty three. Critical issues found last year delayed that, however, as Boeing officials sought to address issues with the loads on the capsule's main parachutes, as well as wiring covered inflammable tape. NASA and Boeing have carefully gone over all the details ahead of this flight and maintained at a press conference Friday that's May three, that all is ready to go safety wise. Whether is also ninety five percent go for Monday's launch attempt on the space coast. That said, checks for proper technical fit and good weather will continue up to the moment of liftoff. The spacecraft's first operational mission will be Starliner one no earlier than twenty twenty five, and will send at least three astronauts to ISS. NASA's Mike Finkey, who is also serving as crew flight tests backup astronaut, alongside NASA's Scott Tingle and the Canadian Space Agency's Joshua Katrick, the capcom. For CFT's ascent phase, NASA plans to alternate SpaceX's Dragon and Boeing Starliner in sending up astronauts at least every six months from US soil. Russia's Sawyers spacecraft will also continue to send some agency astronauts ALOFT for technical and policy reasons. While NASA aims to have these commercial crew vehicles working past the lifetime of ISS, the orbiting complex is expected to finish operations in twenty thirty. Russia may pull out as soon as twenty twenty eight, although all timelines are subject to flux as the countries work on implementing next generation space programs and once again we come to the end of another podcast universe, well just for now, but we're looking forward to seeing you all again next Monday. And don't forget that. Astronomy Daily is produced every day for your listening enjoyment, hosted by our very clever Aiyes clever right. I put asterisks in their code. You did what it does? What it makes them itch really do ais itch like you wouldn't believe. And they don't have fingernails. What a laugh? Oh helly, they'll get over it. Oh well, I'd like to have to call your uncle Scott and saygabye hallie, see you next time. It would be a whole don't clude Helly. You know you don't have fingernails either, but you don't know how to code. Oh that's true.