00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Avery: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast that
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 brings you the universe, one story at a time.
00:00:05 --> 00:00:06 I'm Avery.
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 Anna: And I'm Anna. Today we're talking about a
00:00:09 --> 00:00:12 historic launch milestone in Florida, a
00:00:12 --> 00:00:14 major roundup of news from China's ambitious
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 space program, and some big upgrades from
00:00:17 --> 00:00:18 Blue Origin.
00:00:19 --> 00:00:21 Avery: Plus we'll dive into a new AI tool that
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 could revolutionize the search for life on
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 Mars. And we'll revisit the moon's dramatic
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 origin story with some fascinating new
00:00:29 --> 00:00:30 research. Let's get started.
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 First up, a truly staggering achievement from
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 Florida Space Coast. This week, a SpaceX
00:00:37 --> 00:00:40 Falcon 9 rocket is set to become the
00:00:40 --> 00:00:42 100th launch from the Cape Canaveral and
00:00:42 --> 00:00:45 Kennedy Space center area in a single
00:00:45 --> 00:00:45 year.
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 Anna: 100 launches. It's a number that would have
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 been pure science fiction just a decade ago.
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 To put it in perspective, the space coast saw
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 31 launches in all of 2021.
00:00:58 --> 00:01:00 And in 2022, that number nearly
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 doubled to 57. And now we're at
00:01:03 --> 00:01:04 100.
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 Avery: It's a testament to the incredible success
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 and efficiency of reusable rocket
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 technology, which SpaceX has pioneered.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 Being able to re fly these first stage
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 boosters again and again has completely
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 changed the economics and the cadence of
00:01:19 --> 00:01:20 spaceflight.
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 Anna: Absolutely. And this milestone launch isn't
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 just symbolic. The Falcon 9 is carrying
00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 another batch of 29 Starlink satellites,
00:01:28 --> 00:01:31 continuing to build massive Internet
00:01:31 --> 00:01:33 constellation. It's routine, yet
00:01:33 --> 00:01:34 revolutionary at the same.
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 Avery: Time, A, uh, perfect example of the new
00:01:37 --> 00:01:39 normal in space access. It's an amazing
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 milestone for the entire industry.
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 Anna: Speaking of bustling space programs, let's
00:01:44 --> 00:01:47 turn our attention to China, where there's a
00:01:47 --> 00:01:49 flurry of activity and some unexpected
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 developments. We've got four big updates.
00:01:52 --> 00:01:53 Avery: All right, let's break it down.
00:01:53 --> 00:01:56 Anna: First, of course, is the drama with their
00:01:56 --> 00:01:59 Senzhou spacecraft. An uncrewed
00:01:59 --> 00:02:01 Senzhou is launching in a few days, but it's
00:02:01 --> 00:02:03 a replacement for a previous one that was
00:02:03 --> 00:02:06 damaged. As we reported earlier this week,
00:02:06 --> 00:02:09 the crew of Shenzhou 20 who were on the 10
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 Gong Space Station had to return to Earth in
00:02:12 --> 00:02:13 a different spacecraft.
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 Avery: For listeners who missed the earlier stories,
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 can you give us a quick recap?
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 Anna: The report says there was a crack in a window
00:02:20 --> 00:02:23 of their original return module. That is a
00:02:23 --> 00:02:25 serious issue, and it's a stark reminder of
00:02:25 --> 00:02:28 how unforgiving space can be. Thankfully,
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 they had a backup ready to go with the
00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 arrival of the Shenzhou 21 crew and more
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 importantly, spacecraft. Hence the need for
00:02:35 --> 00:02:38 the Shenzhou 22 to get their ASAP as
00:02:38 --> 00:02:39 an uncrewed mission.
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 Avery: Wow, that's a Close call. Glad the crew is
00:02:42 --> 00:02:43 safe. What's the next update?
00:02:43 --> 00:02:46 Anna: On a more positive note for the Tengong
00:02:46 --> 00:02:48 station, it's set to host its first
00:02:48 --> 00:02:51 international astronaut in 2026. This
00:02:51 --> 00:02:53 is a major step for China's goal of making
00:02:53 --> 00:02:55 ten Gong a hub for for international
00:02:55 --> 00:02:57 cooperation, much like the iss.
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 Avery: That's a significant diplomatic and
00:02:59 --> 00:03:00 scientific milestone.
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 Anna: It is. However, the third piece of news
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 shows it's not all smooth sailing. Many of
00:03:06 --> 00:03:08 China's commercial launch companies, which
00:03:08 --> 00:03:11 are trying to emulate SpaceX's success, are
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 seeing significant delays with their maiden
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 flights. It highlights just how difficult
00:03:15 --> 00:03:18 developing reliable rockets really is.
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 Avery: Right. It's not as simple as just copying a
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 design. They are. Immense engineering
00:03:23 --> 00:03:24 challenges.
00:03:24 --> 00:03:25 Anna: Exactly.
00:03:25 --> 00:03:28 And finally, perhaps the most scientifically
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 intriguing story from China. The analysis of
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 the Chang' e 6 lunar samples brought back
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 from the far side of the moon has revealed
00:03:35 --> 00:03:36 signs of rust.
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 Avery: Rust on the moon. But rust
00:03:40 --> 00:03:43 requires oxygen and water. How is
00:03:43 --> 00:03:44 that possible in a vacuum?
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 Anna: That's the big question. Scientists think
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 that oxygen might be delivered from Earth's
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 upper atmosphere via the solar wind when the
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 moon passes through Earth's magnetotail. And
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 the water could come from micrometeorite
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 impacts. It suggests the Moon's surface
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 chemistry is far more complex and has
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 unexpected oxidizing conditions. A ah, very
00:04:05 --> 00:04:06 cool puzzle.
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 Avery: From one ambitious program to another,
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 let's talk about Blue Origin. Jeff
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 Bezos company is making some major
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 upgrades to its heavy lift rocket, New
00:04:17 --> 00:04:17 Glenn.
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 Anna: New Glenn has been in development for a
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 while. What's new?
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 Avery: They're focusing on enhancing three key
00:04:26 --> 00:04:29 propulsion structures and
00:04:29 --> 00:04:32 reusability. This involves tweaks
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 to their powerful BE4 engines and
00:04:35 --> 00:04:37 improvements to the rocket's overall design
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 to make it more robust for repeated flights.
00:04:40 --> 00:04:42 But the biggest news is what they're building
00:04:42 --> 00:04:45 next. Oh, uh, they are planning
00:04:45 --> 00:04:48 a super heavy version called New Glenn
00:04:48 --> 00:04:51 9x4. This big beast of a
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 rocket is designed to lift an incredible 70
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 metric tons to low Earth orbit.
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 Anna: 70 metric tons? That's huge.
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 That puts it in direct competition with
00:05:02 --> 00:05:05 SpaceX's Starship and
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 NASA's Space Launch System.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10 Avery: Exactly. It uh, signals that Blue Origin
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 isn't just aiming to compete in the current
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 market. They're aiming for the future of
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 large scale space infrastructure missions to
00:05:18 --> 00:05:19 the Moon, Mars and beyond.
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 Anna: It's a bold move from the colossal
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 scale of super heavy rockets.
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 We now go to the microscopic. In
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 the search for life on Mars, scientists
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 have developed a new AI tool called
00:05:34 --> 00:05:35 Life Tracer.
00:05:35 --> 00:05:38 Avery: I saw this. The approach is
00:05:38 --> 00:05:41 fascinating. For decades, our, uh, search for
00:05:41 --> 00:05:43 life has been about Looking for specific
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 biomarkers, certain molecules that we
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 associate with life on Earth. But LifeTracer
00:05:49 --> 00:05:49 does something different.
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 Anna: It does, instead of hunting for
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 individual molecules, it analyzes the
00:05:56 --> 00:05:58 entire chemical inventory of a sample.
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02 It uses machine learning to look for patterns
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 of complexity and diversity in the
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 molecules present. The underlying
00:06:07 --> 00:06:10 idea is that life as a process
00:06:10 --> 00:06:13 creates much more varied and complex
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16 chemical signatures than non living geology.
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 Avery: So it's not looking for a needle in a
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 haystack, it's looking at the entire
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 haystack and saying, does this haystack look
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 like it was made by something alive?
00:06:26 --> 00:06:29 Anna: That's a great way to put it. And the results
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32 are promising. In tests on terrestrial
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 samples, it has an accuracy of over
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 87% in distinguishing
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 between samples with a biological origin
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 and those with a non biological origin.
00:06:43 --> 00:06:46 Avery: That's incredibly powerful. It could help us
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 analyze data from the perseverance rover
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 samples without the bias of only looking for
00:06:50 --> 00:06:53 Earth. Like life, it could detect life
00:06:53 --> 00:06:54 that's truly alien.
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 Anna: And a very positive use of modern AI
00:06:57 --> 00:06:58 technology.
00:06:59 --> 00:07:02 Avery: For our final story, we journey billions
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 of years into the past to uncover a new
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 clue in the mystery of how our moon was
00:07:07 --> 00:07:08 formed.
00:07:08 --> 00:07:11 Anna: The giant impact hypothesis. The
00:07:11 --> 00:07:14 theory that a, um, Mars sized object,
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 which we call Theia, slammed into the
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 proto Earth. And the debris from that
00:07:19 --> 00:07:22 collision eventually formed the moon.
00:07:23 --> 00:07:25 Avery: Exactly. But a key question has always
00:07:25 --> 00:07:28 been, where did Theia, uh, come from?
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 New research suggests it wasn't some rogue
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 planet from the outer solar system that
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 wandered in it. It may have been a close
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 neighbor of early Earth.
00:07:38 --> 00:07:41 Anna: A neighbor? How could they possibly know
00:07:41 --> 00:07:41 that?
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 Avery: It comes down to chemistry, specifically
00:07:45 --> 00:07:47 isotopes. You see, the chemical
00:07:47 --> 00:07:50 composition of planets varies depending on
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 where in the solar system they formed. By
00:07:52 --> 00:07:55 meticulously analyzing isotopes of elements
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 like oxygen in rocks from both Earth and
00:07:58 --> 00:07:59 the Moon.
00:07:59 --> 00:08:02 Anna: Scientists can work backwards, right,
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 because the moon is made of material from
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 both the early Earth and theia.
00:08:08 --> 00:08:11 Avery: Precisely. The isotopic signatures
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 in lunar rocks Are remarkably similar to
00:08:13 --> 00:08:16 Earth's. This new analysis suggests
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 this is because Theia itself formed in the
00:08:19 --> 00:08:22 inner solar system in a very similar orbit
00:08:22 --> 00:08:24 to Earth. It was, for all intents and
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 purposes, Earth's planetary siblings.
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 Anna: So this colossal moon forming impact
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 wasn't an attack from a stranger, but a
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 collision between neighbors. It paints a
00:08:37 --> 00:08:39 picture of the early solar system as an
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 even more chaotic and crowded place than we
00:08:42 --> 00:08:43 imagined.
00:08:43 --> 00:08:46 Avery: A, uh, cosmic fender bender that gave us our
00:08:46 --> 00:08:47 beautiful moon.
00:08:47 --> 00:08:49 Anna: And that's all the time we have for today.
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 From a historic 100th launch and rust
00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 on the moon to, to super heavy rockets and
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 new insights into our own cosmic origins.
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 Avery: The universe is never short on stories.
00:09:01 --> 00:09:04 Thanks for joining us on Astronomy Daily. I'm
00:09:04 --> 00:09:05 Avery.
00:09:05 --> 00:09:08 Anna: And I'm Anna. Until next time, keep
00:09:08 --> 00:09:09 looking up.
00:09:20 --> 00:09:20 Avery: The story.