NASA's Moon Base Ignition: A New Era in Lunar Exploration
SpaceTime with Stuart GaryMarch 30, 2026x
38
00:33:2230.6 MB

NASA's Moon Base Ignition: A New Era in Lunar Exploration

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 38 *Gateway space station axed in favour of a base on the Moon – Part 1 In this special report, we’ll look at NASA’s decision to pause construction of the Lunar Gateway space station project in favour of accelerating plans to build a permanent base at the Moon’s south pole. Forget everything you’ve heard until now! NASA is shifting focus totally on a new endeavour named Ignition which is designed to achieve US President Donald Trump’s National Space Policy with the aim of establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon. The seven year 20 billion dollar project will see more than thirty spacecraft sent to the Moon to deploy rovers, equipment, habitat modules and of course people. *A New Artemis Mission As part of these changes the cadence of Artemis flights to the Moon will increase to at least one surface landing every year. And the configuration of the 98 metre tall SLS Space Launch System moon rocket will be standardised with the use of a Centaur V upper stage replacing both the current Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage and the planned Exploration Upper Stage. *Cosmonauts forced take control of a Russian Progress cargo ship Cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station were forced to take control of a Russian Progress cargo ship and dock the spacecraft manually after two of its KURS automated rendezvous antennas failed to deploy. *The Science Report Planet Earth has just experienced its 11 hottest years on record. Scientist have created a novel organism which has developed a primitive nervous system. Study shows people have been living with dogs as companions for over 14 thousand years. Skeptics guide to the ghost face in the northern lights

Our Guests This Week: NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman Dr. Lori Glaze acting associate administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Carlos Garcia-Galan program executive in charge of NASA’s Moon Base Project. Jasmin Plattner from ZARM -- the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity ZARM research scientist Tiago Ramalho from the University of Bremen.   And our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics 🌏 Get Our Exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ www.bitesz.com/nordvpn . The discounts and bonuses are incredible! And it’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! ✌ If you’d like to support the podcast and gain access to bonus content by becoming a SpaceTime crew member, you can do just that through premium versions on Patreon, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Details on the Support page on our website https://www.bitesz.com/show/spacetime/support/   For more SpaceTime and show links: https://linktr.ee/biteszHQ
This is Spacetime Series twenty nine, Episode thirty eight, for broadcast on the thirtieth of March twenty twenty six. Coming up on space Time, huge changes as NASA's Gateway space Station project is axed in favor of a base on the Moon. The changes mean new missions for the Artemis program and cosmonauts forced to take control of a Russian Progress cargo ship. All that and more coming up on space Time. Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary. And we begin tonight show with the first of a special two part report looking at NASA's decision to pause construction of the Lunar Gateway space Station project in favor of accelerating plans to build a permanent base at the moon South Pole. Forget everything you've heard until now, NASA a shifting focus totally on a new endeavor named Ignition, which is designed to achieve US President Donald Trump's National Space Policy the aim of establishing a permanent human presence on the lunar surface. The seven year, twenty plus billion dollar project will see will Over sixty spacecraft center the Moon, deploying rovers, equipment, habitat modules, and of course people. NASA Administrator Jared Isacman says the agency is committed to returning to the Moon before the end of President Trump's term, build a moon base at the lunar South Pole, establish and enduring presence, and do the other things needed to ensure American leadership in space. Isacman says, the clock is running and success or failure will be measured in months nine years. Artemis two in the days ahead will send NASA and a CSA astronaut into the lunar environment, the first crude step of the Artemis program to pick up where Gene, Harrison and Ronald left off on Apollo seventeen. At the same time, we are standardizing the SLS architecture with the Center five Upper stage. We're rebuilding and focusing expertise on mL one pad turnaround, and establishing the muscle memory required to support a higher launch cadence. The programs we left behind in this effort were not success stories. NASA takes ownership for the shortcomings, but contributings billions more and time that we do not have was not a pathway to success. As we move forward, we intend to launch Artemis three in twenty twenty seven to test the integrated operations of Orion and One are both lunar landers in Earth orbit. What we learned from that mission will ideally give us the confidence to begin lunar landing attempts starting with Artemis four in twenty twenty eight. I'm pleased with the proposals from both SpaceX and Blue Origin to accelerate progress on their landers alongside Axiom on the EVA suit development. Should we fail and should we look on as our rivals achieve their lunar goals ahead of our own, We are not going to celebrate our adherents to access requirements, policy or bureaucratic process. This revised, step by step approach to learn, to build muscle memory, to bring down risk and gain confidence is exactly how NASA achieved the near impossible in the nineteen sixties. But this time the goal is not flags and footprints. This time the goal is to stay. Today, we are providing a demand signal for frequent crude missions well beyond Artemis five. We intend to work with no fewer than two launch providers with the aim of crude landings every six months, with additional opportunities for new entrants in the years ahead. America will never again give up the moon that brings us to the next step building the Moon base. It should not really surprise anyone that we are pausing Gateway in its current form and focusing on infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the lunar surface. Despite some of the very real hardware and schedule challenges, we can repurpose equipment and international partner commitments to support surface and other program objectives. It's worth pointing out that shifting NASA workforce priority to the surface, which has lots of advantages for safety, tech demonstration, and science, it's really the proving ground for future Mars initiatives, does not preclude revisiting the orbital outpost in the future. We will build the moon base in three phases. Phase one endeavors to support industry by moving from infrequent bespoke efforts to a templated approach that will generate significant learning through experimentation. We will dramatically expand lunar landings through the CLIPS in the LTV program, delivering rovers instruments and technology payloads the test mobility power systems, such as working with international partners and industry on the production of RUSE and RTGs, communications, navigation, surface operations, and all the science. Payload that can be incorporated. Phase two transitions from experimentation to semi habitable infrastructure and routine logistics, with the aim of supporting regular astronaut operations on the surface. It's at this point we anticipate seeing the significant contributions from our great partners, like Jackson's pressurized rover. Phase three takes advantage of the affordable mass to surface capabilities that cargo hls will inevitably provide in the years ahead, and enables the permanent infrastructure necessary to sustain a human presence, such as Italy's proposed habitation module. The Moon base will not appear overnight. We will invest approximately twenty billion dollars over the next seven years and build that through dozens of missions, working together with commercial and international partners, towards a deliberate and achievable plan. Just as there was mercury Inngemity. Before Apollo, there will be an evolutionary path to building humanity's first permanent surface outposts beyond Earth, and we will take the world along with us as they follow along on the NASA Moon based website and watch the assembly through lunar relay and observation satellites. At the same time, NASA will never give up its presence in lower thorbit. The International Space Station has served humanity well, but it will not operate forever. The transition to commercial stations must be thoughtful and set up industry for success now, regardless of the pathway, NASA will invest the limited budget available over the years to work with commercial providers to build the future LEO presence, which includes maturing capabilities, expanding commercial opportunities through the PAM program, while creating what we hope is an achievable glidepath to commercially operated space stations. We will further signal demand for what we hope will be multiple crew and cargo transportation providers to support LEO requirements for decades into the future. Now, NASA cannot force an orbital economy to exist, for we will certainly do all we can to ignite one. That's NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. The urgency comes as Beijing moves forward with its own Man Moon program, which it claims will see tigernaughts walking on the lunar surface by twenty thirty, and that'll be followed shortly thereafter by a joint SONO Russian base built at the Luna South Pole. This is space time, as his latest announcement follows on from the recent changes to the Artemis program, which will see next year's Artemis three mission change from a manned lunar landing to a test flight in low Earth orbit, with Artemis four to now host the long awaited return of humans of the lunar surface early in twenty twenty eight. That's some fifty six years after man last will on the Moon during the Apollo seventeen mission back in nineteen seventy two. As part of these changes, the cadence of Atomis flights to the Moon will increase to at least one surface landing every year, and the configuration of the ninety eight meter tall SOLS Space Launch System Moon rocket will be standardized with the use of Centaur upper stages to replace both the current interim cryogenic propulsion stage and the planned Expiration upper stage. Laurie Glaze, acting Associate Administrative for NASA's Expiration Systems Development Mission Directorate, says following the success of the unmanned Atomis one mission back in twenty twenty two, work on Atomus two is proceeding smoothly. For this week's launch. Artemis two, as we all are aware, will demonstrate Orian crude operations, including critical tests of environmental control and life support systems, manual spacecraft maneuvering as part of a proximity operations demonstration prior to the translunar injection. Artemis three is now being replanned as an Earth orbit test flight, demonstrating integrated launches with rendezvous and docking demonstrations with one or both of the lander providers. Artemis four will perform the first crude landing in early twenty twenty eight, and Artemis five is targeted later in twenty twenty eight to further accelerate towards establishing the lunar base. I'm going to take a couple of moments to talk about Artemis two. This is the very first critical step in the success of this plan. We've got to successfully complete Artemis two. I can tell you I was just out at the pad last Friday as we rolled the spacecraft back out to the pad. We've been tracking it day by day in the preparations leading up to launch, and I can tell you that as of this moment right now, there are no major issues that we're working. We are doing everything according to plan. We're following the plan, and we'll also be saying alert for anything that may go a little austray. We want to assure that our astronauts are three American and Canadian crew are all safe for this mission. We've already passed our final big review, the flight Readiness Review, on March eleventh and twelfth, so that milestone is behind us, and we are now, as I said, aiming for April first. The launch window extends from the first through the sixth, and there should be about four attempts possible within that six day period. So I'll give you just a little bit about the mission plan for Artemis two. I like to basically break it up into about four phases. The first part of. The mission is the launch, and then we go into this twenty four hour high Earth orbit. While we're in that high Earth orbit, we are going to check out the environmental control and life support systems. This is the newest piece for Artemis two and the critical piece for supporting our crew and keeping them safe and healthy throughout the mission. While we're in that twenty four hour orbit, we will also conduct the proximity operations demonstration. Once we have separated from the ICPS, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, our upper stage. We will use the manual controls in Orion to approach and then regress, and then approach the ICPS to see and get better feel for how those control respond to the cruise direction. Once we're confident that all the systems are operating within the Orion spacecraft, it's the completion of that twenty four hour orbit. We will perform the translunar injection, which sets us on the path to the Moon, around and back, where we'll use the Moon's gravity to bring us back. It's a free return trajectory, so that second phase is about four days out to the Moon, and then we have the third phase, which is the lunar flyby, where we'll get to observe the far side of the Moon and hopefully break the record, the Apollo record for the farthest any human has ever flown from Earth, and then we begin the cruise back about another four days back to Earth. The final part of the mission is the re entry to Earth's atmosphere and splash down off the coast of San Diego in the Pacific Ocean. We'll work closely with our partners at the Department of war to recover the crew, bring them safely to shore, and return them the Johnson Space Center. Artemis three, as we've mentioned, is now a new Earth orbit docking demonstration in twenty twenty seven. The hardware for Artemis three is very mature, and we're working to meet the twenty twenty. Seven launch readiness. As soon as we complete the launch of Artemis two, we will assess the condition of the mobile launch pad. We made significant changes to ruggedize the mobile launcher following Artemis one, and so we anticipate the ability to turn the pad around very quickly and begin preparations for stacking of the Artemis three rocket. The space launch system hardware, the rocket hardware, most of it. A lot of it's already at Kennedy's Space Center. We'll have a lot more of it there very very soon. The intern cryogenic propulsion stage on the ICPS is ready. We may need it for Artemis three, we may save it for Artemis. Four, but it is ready. The boosters, the solid rocket boosters, have been ready for a while. They were just waiting for space in the Vehicle Assembly building. We anticipate shipping those and receiving them at KSC in April. Later in April, the engine section for the core stage for Artemis three is already in the Vehicle Assembly Building undergoing integration work. The RS twenty five engines are ready and they're shipping in April. The top four to fifth of the Core Stage I should be shipping from the Mishute Assembly Facility week or two after the Artemis two mission completes. We expect to receive those down at Kennedy Space Center. The core stage the launch vehicle stage adapter is also ready in storage at Marshall Space Flight Center and we anticipate that shipping to KSC as well. Our Ryan team is also working hard to meet the challenge of a twenty twenty seven launch. All elements are already at the Neil Armstrong Operations in Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center, and significant progress is already underway. The Orion Service Module is in testing and checkout making great progress. The heat shield has completed its fabrication and assembly and in its final preparations to be ready to be integrated into the Arian Crewe module. The service module is also being integrated and tested. So we've got the service module, the crew module, We've got all the piece parts. We are in that integration stage, of course. In order to perform this important docking demonstration, we are going to partner closely with both of our Human Landing System providers. The goal for this mission is for Orian to dock with one or both of those landers, and both of the HLS providers already have been given a task to assess the options for this new Artemis three mission profile. In preparations, we're watching closely the development of both lander systems. The Starship flight test number twelve we anticipate happening in April, hopefully no earlier than but hopefully in April, will be the first flight of their Version three, which is a major step towards the lunar landing capability of the Blue Origin Mark one, which is their predecessor to the Mark two human Lander. They've invested a great deal in the Mark one Lander and anticipate launching that within a few months, and we'll be watching. There's a lot of. Commonalities with the systems needed for the Human Lander that will buy down risk with this Mark one mission. Back in the fall of twenty twenty five, NASA already began working with both of the providers to accelerate the human landing to twenty twenty eight. Those accelerated landers. Are what we will be using for the Artemis three rendezvous and docking demonstration to. Buy down the risk. So as soon as the Administrator made his announcement, we began actively assessing the specifics of the mission profile and the objectives that can be addressed. In this mission. The new mission will endeavor to include a rendezvous and docking with one or both commercial landers, as I said from SpaceX and Blue Origin. It will include in space tests of the docked vehicles and integrated checkout of life support the docked vehicles, the communications and the propulsion systems. We also really hope to be able to include the new. Extra vehicular activity suits in the Landers to help reduce future risks on their development. Now, so we'll further define this test flight after we complete the detailed reviews that we are conducting right now actively between NASA and our industry partners, and the agency will of course share the specifics the specific objectives for the updated Artemis three mission very in the very very near future. The primary objectives that we're considering as part of this mission profile include things like demonstrating the multi launch campaign coordination. This is not simple. We need to have multiple rockets launching in a coordinated fashion such that we can all meet up together in space at the same time and place. Of course, the Orion rendezvous and proximity operations with the landers in orbits one of the primary objectives we want to work through crude docking operations. We would really like to test those surface suits if possible. We'll be testing the critical lander systems and lander vehicle performance while in Earth orbit, and we'll be looking at performance of the new Orion permeable heat shield. We have the new more permeable heat shield. We'll be flying on Orian for Artemis three, and while the Earth orbit won't put quite the demands on it that we would have returning from the Moon, we will gather important data on the performance of that heat shield. We'll also get practice. In increasing the mission cadence with a prompt turnaround of the pad and the ground systems really pushing that system to do a quick turnaround. With Artemis four in early twenty twenty eight, NASA has undertaken an effort to work with both of the HLS providers to request and assess their proposals to accelerate the lander development. This includes modifications to our requirements and then also to the surface of things that we want them to do on the surface and how we want them to work with us. We've got requirements to the hardware, the mission definitions, capabilities that enable us to move faster. We're really focusing on how can we move faster. The intent with this change, with trying to pull these forward and working with both for fighters is to fly with whichever provider is ready first. For twenty twenty seven, we've already made significant progress on the government side of the hardware that's required for Artemis. Four, both on the SOLS and the Orion. The solid rocket booster segments are complete, the apskirts for the boosters are in their final production. The core stage engine section for Artemis four is actually already at Kennedy Space Center. The RS twenty five engines are in storage, The top four fifths of the core stage are in their manufacturing at Mischuet Assembly Facility, and the Iran cru module is also in its final assembly at onc IT Kenny Space and the Orion service module that's provided by our European partners is also well into its integration at KC. As I mentioned, we only have one more ICPS. We're in the process of determining whether it would be used for Artemis three or four. But as part of the plan to standardize production of the transportation system, the exploration upper stage that was previously planned for Artemis four has been replaced with the Centaur five, which is a proven capability as part of the ULA Vulcan launch system. Right now, all of our programs are actively engaged in understanding what modifications will be needed to be implemented in order to transition from ICPS to the Centaur five upper stage. The new generation suits are. Being developed by Axiom to support NASA's lunar surface extra vehicular activities. This is a significant effort and critical to our ability to execute the first landed mission. NASA is accelerating this effort and we're providing direct support at Axiom facilities and suppliers to increase the collaboration excel rate hardware production. The Axiom suits are being planned for checkout, as I said, hopefully on Artemis three or possibly additionally on the ISS. The suits for the mission for Artemis four will be delivered to the Human landing system for integration. Again, both of our providers for Artemis four are working on simplifying their profiles to accelerate the initial landings and those surface capabilities. The primary goal. Of this mission for Artemis four is to execute the first crude landing since nineteen seventy two. While in orbit around the Moon, the crew will have two crew transfer from Orion to the commercial lander, which will safely transport those two crew to the surface of the Moon and then ultimately bring them back to rendezvous with Orion in lunar orbit. While they're on the Moon, the two crew will demonstrate surface operations, including deployment of science instruments and conducting an integrated surface science campaign. Both of the providers are required to complete a successful uncrewed landing prior to carrying any of our crew. We've been looking and talking with both of the providers. SpaceX has been considering alternatives of the HLS starship design while implementing a more streamlined approach to try and speed things up and pull things forward. The Blue Origin approach implements existing capabilities that they have today as a stepping stone toward their eventual full capacity architecture. We've asked both teams for feedback, how can we help simplify these missions and how. Can we speed up the landing? And the overarching themes that we've heard from both SpaceX and Blue Origin were, first off, can we please avoid the near rectilinear halo orbit? Can we please avoid RHO to help reduce the HLS workload, what's required of that system, and also improve lunar surface mission planning flexibility. We've also heard that simplifying the mission requirements for this initial mission while maintaining their long term capability is also a strong desire. We want to simplify, but we also want to make sure we're building towards the future, so it's important to assure that whatever architecture we're using. For our four feeds forward to what's going to be needed in the future. In response to the feedback that we've received from SpaceX and Blue Origin, we are indicating, and we have indicated to both of them, that we are open to other non RHO lunar orbits. Some of these orbits could reduce our crew risk with abord opportunities that are available in hours versus up to a week if we were in NRHO parking orbit. It also opens up flexibility and surface mission planning, allowing us perhaps access to different sites on the surface, or flexibility in the timing of when we land. The intent of offering alternate. Orbits is to balance the orion and lander performance by parking closer to the Moon and being able to have that more frequent or easier access. We're also looking at the surface requirements, trying to make them simple and sustainable. We're looking at more flexible surface planning that supports simplified interfaces, leading to accelerated development. Moving on to Artemis five, which would be the second landed mission in late twenty twenty eight, as we begin our preparations for a lunar base. Yes, there's significant hardware again already in development for Artemis five. Ryan Crewe Module European Service module. This one is in Germany still, but we expect it to be delivered next fall. They're on an excellent yearly cadence of providing those service modules. We've got engines in production, boosters and productions and the core stage already also in manufacturing. That's doctor Laurie Glaze, the acting Associate Administrator v NASA's Expiration Systems Development Mission, Directorate. Looking beyond ITEMUS five, NASA plans to incorporate more commercially obtained and reusable hardware in order to undertake more frequent man missions to the lunar surface, initially targeting and manned landing every six months. The ignission plan will see regular commercial lunar payload service or clip deliveries to the Moon, carrying a regular stream of new rovers, instruments and technology demonstrators in order to test mobility, power generation, including both radioisotope heeds and thermoelectric generators, communications and navigation systems, human habitat modules, and the commencement of both manned and automated scientific surface operations and construction work. More on this in our next episode of space Time. Still to Come. Cosmonauts forced to take control of a Russian Progress cargo ship, and later in the science report, a new study shows people have been living with dogs as companions for over fourteen thousand years. All that and more still to come on Space Time. Cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station were forced to take control of a Russian Progress cargo ship and Doctor spacecraft manually after two of its cur's automated rendezvous antennas failed to deploy once the vehicle was in orbit. The progress MS thirty three was successfully docked to the Russian space facing port of the Poist module after a thirty four orbit flight from the bikan Or Cosmodrome in the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan. The spacecraft is carrying some eight hundred and thirty kilograms of fuel, six hundred and twenty kilograms of food, four hundred and twenty kilograms of water, three hundred ninety three kilograms of spare parts, one hundred and thirty five kilograms of crew hygiene supplies, fifty two kilograms of space science equipment, fifty kilograms of air, and twelve kilograms of medical equipment. This was the first launch from Site thirty one at baik and All since the pad was badly damaged during the lift of of the SOE's MS twenty eight mission last November. Much of the infrastructure collapsed during the launch. The Russian Federal Space agency eros Cosmos initially claimed the damage was so bad it would take more than a year to repair and that would have prevented all manned Russian space missions. As SIT thirty one is the only launch pad designed to handle Soyuz and progress spacecraft. Without it, Russia had lost manned access to space for the first time since nineteen sixty one. This is Space Time and Time Out to take a brief look at some of the other stories speaking US and science this week with a science report fine at Earth has just experienced its eleven hottest years on record. The latest State of the Global Climate report by the Word Meteorological Organization has found that the years twenty fifteen to twenty twenty five have resulted in the hottest continuous stretch of high temperatures ever recorded. Now for the first time, this latest study also included a measure called Earth's energy imbalance, that's the difference between incoming energy from the Sun and the amount of energy radiated back out into space, and it was found to be at its highest level since records of this factor began in nineteen sixty Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels also reached the highest concentration in the last two million years, at around four hundred and thirty parts per million. Scientists have created a novel organism which has developed a primitive nervous system. A report in the journal Advanced Science claims the new organisms, called neurobots are made from frog cells and exhibit complex movements with simple neural networks. Back in the year twenty twenty, scientists that Tufts University created novel life forms called xenobots from frog cells. These were capable of traversing a water environment, healing their own injuries, and even gathering other cells to build up xenobot siblings. Now the researchers have taken that one step further, adding nerve cells and observing how they self organize and alter zenobot behavior. The new research could pave the way for advances in synthetic biology and regenerative medicine. The authors started with cells from early embryos of African calored frogs. When the precursor skin cells from these embryos are removed and allowed to develop in a dish, they spontaneously form small cerical structures covered in tiny hair like projections called cilia. By coordinating the beating of these cilia, the zenobots, a kind of biobot, swims through water. Now these life forms are fully biological formed without any scaffolding materials or other genetic manipulation, capable of self healing, and able to survive for between nine and ten days on nutrients stored in the original embryonic cells. The authors wanted to know how these would change if they added neurons, so they implanted clusters of neural precursor cells into the center of the developing structure during a brief window when the theerical biobots were forming. The implanted cells matured into neurons and then extended branching projections axioms and dendrites throughout their interior. Even towards the outer surface of the bots, the authors identified protein markers typically associated with synapses, the contact points wheen neurons commune Calcium imaging showed that the neurons inside neurobots were electrically active and functioning in primitive neural networks, so adding neurons changed the neurobots in both visible and measurable ways. Compared to non neural biobots, neurobots tend to grow larger and more elongated. They also moved differently. While both types could swim, neurobots were less likely to sit still and were more likely to display complex, repeating movement patterns rather than simple circles or straight lines. To test whether neural signaling was influencing their behavior. The authors exposed the bots to a drug known to affect brain activity and induce seizures, and the drug did alter the movement patterns of the neurobots, suggesting that the newly formed nervous systems were actively shaping behavior. In addition to seeing genes activated for majure brain receptors, the authors also found activation of genes associated with visual perception, including those associated with light sensitive cells and eyes, and this could eventually pave the way for neurobots to perceive and respond to light. It is, indeed a dangerous but fascinating new world we're entering. A new study shows that humans have been living with dogs as companions for more than fourteen thousand years. The findings, reported in the journal Nature, examined archaeological evidence across two studies in Western Eurasia. See how long people have been keeping canine pets. In one study, scientists analyzed doglike remains from across Europe dating back to the Paleolithic and Mesolithic, errors sorting out the walls from true dogs through their DNA. The ordest dog remains they found from a site in Switzerland dating back some fourteen thousand two hundred years and this dog shared the genetic similarities which we find in the dogs we have as pets in our homes today. In the second study, authors analyzed remains from sites in Turkey and the UK, finding evidence of a specific dog population with similar genetics spread across the continent during the late Upper Paleolithic. They say that a peas still have been an influx of Eastern Eurasian dog ancestry coinciding with human hunter gatherer migration from the same region, and that suggests that these dogs migrated alongside humans. It's long been speculated that having dogs as pets allowed Homo sapiens to become more successful than the Anderthals, as both homeited species colonized Europe. While most of us have seen Voldemort's face during the Cretitch World Cup and Gobblet of Fire, imagine if you thought you saw it for real. Well, that's the experience one Vancouver haight had while enjoying the Aurora borealist put on its slight display, recently described as an odd, misshapen Picassa like face. The image of the so called Auroral ghost was taken by a local British Columbian as she watched the Northern Lights put on one of the spectacular evening displays. The Skeptics Tremendum says seeing faces is the genetic trait all human share. It was a tool which helped them survive in ancient times and today it's all part of a common psychological phenomena known as paradolia. It's a vision photos of Aurora, burialis and in one frame or whatever, it looks like a face. I challenge anyone to go out there in the wilds of your local neighborhood and see something that doesn't look like a face. Paradolia is the effect of seeing shapes and forms that are recognizable but aren't really there. It was the famous fence posts at Mariver Beach once that that. Looked like that right, looked after a certain angle. It was Jesus, yes, tess in toasts. There's all sorts of faces. The man in the moon is paradalia. Seeing faces and shapes in clouds of paradalia common thing, nothing to be ashamed about. It happens all the time. Faces are the things you recognize the most because they are the first things you see when you're lying in you're cut being horrified by all these people staring at you. You tend to see faces. Y'rey an easy thing too, doted in a line, it's a face and that's what this person saw in the in the Aurora burialis tell people are calling it an Aurora ghost. It's a shape. It looks like a face. It probably do look like a face, sort of ish, but I mean it's things that people do all the time, and Peo will swear by it. I saw this face there. Yeah. The funniest thing actually responds to it was a Peanuts caster, Charlie Brown line of Lucy is lying down on the grass kind of knoll, looking up at the sky and asking the line of what does he's see And he says, I think there's a map of Bulgaria there, and there's an image of some Peter casting a stone, all this sort of stuff. And then they asked Charlie Brown and said what did you see? He said, I was going to see a little piggy and a doggie, but I changed my mind. The more you can see, the more you want to see, the more you'll see. And that's what paradole here is looking for regular shapes, looking for a recognizable shape. But the real thing does not exist, so this is one of them there or moves on changing shape all the time. For a second day, you see something that looks like a face, you sort of thing. Why, what's the purpose? Why is he having a split second face? You know that fasting on the moon doesn't work in the southern hemisphere. I know. Yeah, we'll also actually in China is regarded as a as a as a rabbit. Another place is regarded as a man with a wheelbarrow, which is interesting. But yeah, I know it. Well, this is a northern chemisphere of centric world, you know, But yeah, I mean sort of. It depends on where you are, what you're looking at the time. Faces in knots in wood, that sort of thing. It's it's not an unusual thing at all. It's not a psychotic or psychiatric condition. It's quite normal. Can play that, seriously. That's the skeptics timendum, and this is space Time, and that's the show for now. Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through at 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 Own Radio and on both iHeartRadio and tune in Radio. And you can help to support our show by visiting the space Time Store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies, or by becoming a Spacetime Patron, which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions of the show. As well. There's lots of burnus audio content which doesn't go to wear, access to our exclusive Facebook group, and other rewards. Just go to space Time with Stewart Gary dot com for full details. You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com