Mercury's Hidden Activity and Titan's Dragonfly: Exploring Volatile Streaks and Robotic Rotocopters

This is Spacetime Series twenty nine, Episode fifteen, for broadcast on the fourth of February twenty twenty six. Coming up on space Time, Streaks on the surface of Mercury suggesting it's not quite a dead world yet, how NASA's Dragonfly rotorcopter mission to Titan will fly, and warnings about the dangers post by space fuel pollution. All that and more coming up on space Time. Welcome to space Time with Stuart Garry. A new study has discovered a large number of bright streaks known as linier on the surface of the planet Mercury, the nearest rock to the Sun. Are reporting the journal Nature, Communications, Earth and Environment suggests that these linier could be caused by the out gassing of volatile materials from the planet's interior. Now if correct, it would indicate that Mercury isn't quite the dead planet previously assumed, and instead is still geologically active. The findings provide important new insights into the evolution of Mercury and its volatiles, and it will be further investigated by the Joint European Space Agency Japan Aerospace Expiration Agency EPI Colombo mission, which will achieve Mercury or but insertion in November this year. Although Mercury was geologically active in its early days, today the planet's surface appears almost completely static. That's why it's often perceived as a dead and dry planet. The studies lead author, Valentine Bikel from the University of bern says, this is the first systematic analysis of the so called slope streaks or linier on Mercury. The abundance and distribution of these streaks are providing new insights into the geological activity of the innermost and smallest planet in our Solar System. To reach their conclusions, the authors first used machine learning to create a systematic inventory of the linear on Mercury. With a geostatistical analysis of this inventory, the Kellen colleagues were able to show that these bright linier streaks, which can be seen on slopes right across the planet, was probably being driven by the outgassing of subsurface volatile material from beneath the crust, and this indicates a continuous release of volatiles from Mercury into space even today. The authors analyzed around one hundred thousand high resolution images taken by NASA's Messenger spacecraft, which explored Mercury between twenty eleven and twenty fifteen, they mapped the overall distribution and morphological properties of around four hundred bright streaks on Mercury. Until now, Vinyea on Mercury had not been systematically mapped or studied, and really only a small handful of streaks were actually known. Interestingly, the infantry shows that the brightest streaks mainly occur on the sun facing slopes of young impact craters that penetrated volcanic activity and into potentially volatile rich bedrock underneath. The fact that the linear accumulate in these particularly exposed and temporarily warm regions indicates solar radiation is playing an important role in the activation of the linear formations. The kel says volatile material could reach the surface from deeper layers through a network of cracks in the rock caused by impact events. Most of the streaks appear to originate from bright depressions called hollows now. These hollows are probably also formed by the outgassing of volatile material and are usually located in the shallow interior or along the edges of large impact craters. Either way, the study indicates that planet Mercury is far more geologically active than previously thought. The role of these lineae as potential indicators that the outgassing of volatiles on Mercury provides important insights in the geological dynamics and composition of the planet as a whole. Needless to say, epic Colombo will provide us with new insights this It's space time still to come. Nassas Dragonfly rotocopter mission to the Moon Titan will fly, and new studies show that burning rocket fuels such as kerosene damages the SO zone layer. All that and more still to come on space time. NASA is developing a car sized rotocopter called Dragonfly, which will explore Saturn's moon Titan. The Dragonfly mission will undertake an unprecedented voyage of scientific discovery to Award, which in many ways is probably very similar to the early Earth. Titan is the only world in our Solar System other than Earth, where it rains, which then forms streams and rivers that flow into lakes and seas. But unlike Earth, with a rain is formed by liquid water, on Titan, its liquid is methane and ethane. That's because Titan's so cold. Water there is frozen solid forming much of the Moon's bedrock. The car sized Dragonfly rotocopter is based on the tiny tissue box sized Ingenuity rotocopter, which explored the surface of the red planet Mars as part of the twenty twenty one Perseverance Rover emission ges Row Crater. The autonomous one point eight kilogram Ingenuity was built using off the shelf components and was designed purely as a proof of concept idea intended to just undertake five test flights on the red planet's surface just to show you could fly on Mars. Amazingly, Ingenuity kept flying for some seventy two missions over three Earth years, often scarting ahead for Perseverance, fighting the best route forward, and searching for interesting new geology. It was the success of Ingenuity which led to NASA's decision to develop Dragonfly to explore the Saturnian moon Titan, set for launch in twenty twenty eight, The Dragonfly will be designed and built at the JOHNS. Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. On arrival in twenty thirty four, Dragonfly will exploit Titanstent's atmosphere in low gravity. The flight to dozens of locations exploring varied environments, from organic equatorial dunes to impact craters where liquid water and complex organic materials essentral for life as we know it may have existed together. When full Dragonfly rotocraft integration and testing begins later this month, scientists and engineers will tap into a trove of data gathered through critical technical trials conducted over the past three years, including most recently two campaigns at the trans Sonic Dynamics Tunnel Facility at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia. Over some five weeks during August and September last year, the team evaluated the performance of Dragonfly's rotor system. That's what's going to provide lift for the lander to fly and enable it to maneuver. The testing in the Transcenic Dynamics Tunnel Facility allowed scientists to test the system in titan like conditions, looking at aero mechanical performance factors such as stress on the rotor arms and the effects of vibration on the rotor blades and land of body. Dave Piarete, chief of aero Elasticity at NASA's Langley says, when Dragonfly enters the titanium atmosphere, and the parachutes deploy. After the hat shield does its job, the rotors are going to have to start working perfectly first time. Every time. There's simply no room for error. This report from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physix Laboratory. Dragonfly is a rotocraft mission to Warner Shandersman's Titan. The really curious and understanding how life evolved on Earth, how we came to be, and we see Titan as sort of a precursor to what it takes for life to form. Titan has an atmosphere. That's why the rotorcraft is a good option for the Dragonfly program. By doing these hops and flying to these different regions, we can get a broader sense of the makeup of Titan. It's an octicopter, so it's got eight propellers rotors that power it. The rotors are one of the most important parts of the craft. Without the rotors, it doesn't fly. Then we can't get the information that we need. Dragonfly is going to be slamming into the upper atmosphere of Titan, and immediately the rotors are going to have to work the first time. There's no room for air here, So any concerns with structural dynamics or aero rotor performance would need to be known. Now we are machining eight rotors for the wind tunnel tests. All the fixturing had to be custom made. We're removing so much material. We're going from three hundred and fifty pounds down to six and a half pounds. We didn't have extra material or the time to make an extra so everything had to be perfect every time. Why the blade looks the way it does. That was actually an overlap of where we're very efficient on Titan, where we can find venues on Earth to test that. As a rotor engineer, the wind tunnel testing is one of the most important DAN use for us to put out the design. The transonic dynamics tunnels. At the Nation's Flutter Tunnel, we do structural, dynamic and flutter testing of aircraft at transonic supersonic conditions. We can pump the tunnel down the low pressures, but then also fill it with a heavy gas. We can control the density of the test medium and therefore simulate precisely the conditions on Titan. On this particular test, the focus is primarily aero mechanics. All of that data will be combined to create very high fidelity representations of loads forces dynamics. We can use that to predict the performance on Titan with a high degree of confidence. We're going to be acquiring gigabytes of data that will help determine the structural capabilities of the rotor blades, of the arms, and of the vehicle. You have to understand and all of these boundaries in order to ensure a safe light for that project that's going to take humanity all the way to Titan. This was the very successful test campaign. Without the ability to get to Nassal Angley, we couldn't accomplish a syncreticly ambitious miss using some of those resources as what's going to get us to the finish line and to Kennedy ready for launch. It is so kind of out there in terms of a concept. You know, we're going to launch a two thousand pound vehicle to go fly around another moon. It's just kind of beyond the realm of what most people think about science fiction. We got a huge crew of very brilliant and intelligent people. There isn't too much that we can't overcome. And in that report from the Johns Hopkins Supplied Physics laboratory we heard from, wrote to lead Enginea Philippe Ruez Wind Tunnel test lad Rick Heisler, experimental machinist Corey Pennington, and aero Elasticity Assistant Branch chief Dave Pattach. This space time still to come you study showing that burning rocket fuels such as kerosine damages the sozone layer, and later in the science report showing that t REX took longer to reach full size and previously thought all that and more still to come on space time. A new study shows that burning rocket fuels such as kerosine damages the Earth ozone layer, and the burgeoning rocket launch industry is making that problem far worse. A report in the journal Climate and Atmospheric Science claims Antarctica, New Zealand, and parts of Australia appear to be the worst off under the current space industry growth scenario. It seems the ozone damage is being caused by chlorine and black carbon from propellants used in the launchers, and so researchers are now calling for restrictions and how often these types of fuels can be used. This space time and time out attack another brief look at some of the other stories making news in science this week with a science report. A new study claims cyber attacks by nations like China and Iran not only threatened the technical systems they target, but can also spark extensive social media discussions, which can escalate into broader community crises. The findings are reported in the journal Engineering, Construction, Architectural Management. Reveals that public reactions to cyber attacks can be intense, emotional, and wide ranging. The authors examined a twenty twenty one cyber attack on a water treatment plant in Florida as a case study. In that incident, a hacker gained room access to the facility's control systems in the bid to significantly raise concentrations of setium hydroxide into the water supply. Now, although the intruder initially succeeded in altering the chemical levels, a plant operator noticed the unauthorized changes in real time and quickly reversed them, thereby preventing what could have been a serious public health threat. A new prostate cancer treatment that aims to target the cancer without as many side effects has shown promise in the trial of one hundred patients. Treating the whole prostate can lead to long term side effects, and the new technology aims to leave the unaffected areas of the prostate gland untouched or still treating the cancer itself. A report in the British Journal of Urology found that eighty four of the initial one hundred trial patients showed no clinically significant prostate cancer three months after their treatment, a similar result to other treatments of this type under development, and they say the treatment appears safe with fewer side effects. For decades now, Penny and Just have been counting annual growth rings similar to tree rings, inside fossilized leg burns of Tyrannosaurus rex in order to estimate how old these giant carnivals were when they died and how quickly they grew to adulthood. The best estimates from previous studies suggested that t Rex typically stop growing at an age of around twenty five, but now a new study of seventeen Tyrannisal specimens ranging from early juveniles to massive adults, has found that the lizard king actually took some forty years to reach its full grown size of around eight tons and fourteen meters in length. The new analysis, reported in the General Peer j was able to assemble a complete and more accurate picture of the carnavorous therapod's growth by using advanced statistical algorithms and examining slices of fossilized bone under circularly polarized and cross polarized light, which revealed hidden growth rings not counted in previous studies. Apple Music, which is long prided itself on free speech and individual rights, has displayed its owner park gracy by banning the anti work Holly Valance song Kiss Kiss My Ass. Community. The song, which is currently number one on the iTunes music charts, is the theme for Pauli. Enhanson's animated film A Super Aggressive Movie, which itself is a satirical takedown on what conservatives see as the work hypocrisy, gas lighting, and revisionist history of the virtue signaling culture and politics of the left. Technology editor alex Ha Harrov Right from Take Advice Dart Life, says that decision will reflect poorly on Apple's credibility. Well, look, I mean, Apple has been very strong in defending you know, privacy and freedom, but it does so in the countries where it believes it can do that. The US is one place. I mean, they've been asked by other countries to take down VPNs, and Apple says they have to abide by the countries they're in, but to take is down in Australia. I mean, Apple shouldn't be stifling free speech, yeah, Apple or not commenting, but Apple should not be stifling free speech. I mean that's sort of against its supposed values. I'm disappointed in that and hope that they reverse it, because what are we doing here, Apple? Why are we censoring. Things thing to see whether or not it affects Apple sales in the future. With the One Nation Party headed by Paul and Hanson rising in the bowls, I mean, look, they always say. That reforms taken over the UK Poles. I think it's game on in Australia and it's a bit of a shame to see Apple take this stance. They should be questioning. We're questioning them right now, we're raising issue about it. But that's not really a welcome development. It's not a sign of a friend of freedom. Apple. Hello, Apple have made some announcements this week. Look they haven't, did, I mean slightly? You know, well in much more positive news for you know, Apple users. And the world. They have now had the high potension notifications authorized by the TG and released. And this is not the case where you get a cuff and you get a reading within a minute or two. It is using its light sensing technologies to look at blood flow measure it against an algorithm that has been created through the various trials that I've always done of the technologies with medical studies, and they can, over a period of thirty days, determine whether you have elevated hypertension or not, and they can tell you and then look at least you're being told about it. And as Samsung has had the ability to check blood pressure, but you have to originally give it a baseline with a real cuff measurement and then regularly recalibrate it with a real cuff. And Huawei has a watch where the actual wristband inflate like an actual blood pressure cuff, which is the most accurate of all and a portable device that you earn your wrist. One day it'll be used against us to track us, but until that happens, it's a way for us to measure our own health and attack action whatever action we see fit. When notified of potential things going wrong. There are definitely good things for this sort of technology. I wonder how long it will be before they use this sort of technology to act as a surreptitious light detector. Well, I'm sure they're working on the algorithm do that right now. You know, somewhere somewhere in the background, maybe the military is doing it Apple, but I mean, I'm sure they have other ways of already doing that. That's Alex harrov Ruyt from tech Advice dot life, and this is Spacetime, and that's the show for now. Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through bytes dot com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider, and from space Time with Stuart Gary dot com. Space Time's also broadcast through the National Science Foundation, on Science Zone Radio and on both iHeartRadio and tune In Radio. 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