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STUART GARY: This is Space Time series 26 episode 85 for
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broadcast on the 17th of July 2023. Coming up on Space Time, a
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possible retake on the age of the universe. A new look at the
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ringed world of Saturn. Thanks to the web space telescope and
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Australia to grow plants on the Moon. All that and more coming
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up on Space Time.
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GENERIC: Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Garry.
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STUART GARY: A new study suggested the universe might
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actually be 26.7 billion years old. Now, if correct, that's
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nearly twice as old as the 13.8 billion year age previously
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believed. The new study reported in the journal, the monthly
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notices of the Royal Astronomical Society challenges
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the dominant cosmological model and sheds new light on the so
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called impossible early galaxy problem.
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The study's author, Agenda Gupta from the University Of Ottawa
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says his newly devised model stretches galaxy formation Time
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by several billion years.
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Astronomers and physicists have calculated the age of the
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universe by measuring the Time elapse since the Big Bang and by
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studying the older stars based on the red shift of light coming
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from distant Galaxies in 2021. Thanks to new techniques and
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advances in technology, the age of our universe was estimated to
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be between 13 and 13.82 billion years using the Lambda
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coal dark matter concordance model.
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However, many scientists have been puzzled by the existence of
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stars like the Meesa star that appear to be older than the
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estimated age of the universe. And also by the discovery of
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very early Galaxies in the James Webb Space telescope images
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which appear to have already achieved an advanced state of
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evolution.
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These Galaxies existing just 300 million years after the Big Bang
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appear to have already achieved a level of mass and maturity
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normally associated with Galaxies billions of years
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older. Z Vicky's Tired light theory proposes that the red
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shift of light from distant Galaxies is due to a gradual
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loss of energy by photons over vast cosmic distances.
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However, that conflicts with observations according to Gupta
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by allowing this theory to coexist with the expanding
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universe, it becomes possible to reinterpret redshift as a hybrid
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phenomenon rather than purely due to the expansion of Space
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Time.
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In addition to Vicky's Tired light theory, Gupta introduces
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the idea of evolving coupling constants that was previously
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hypothesized by Paul Dirac coupling constants are
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fundamental physical constants that govern the interactions
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between particles.
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Now, according to Dirac, these constants could vary over Time,
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meaning they're not nearly as constant as we think they are by
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allowing them to evolve the timeline for the formation of
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early Galaxies as observed by the web Space telescope at high
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redshift can be extended from a few 100 million years to several
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billion.
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Gupta says this provides a more feasible explanation for the
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advanced level of development and the mass observed in these
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ancient Galaxies. Moreover, Gupta suggests that the
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traditional interpretation of the cosmological consonant which
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represents stark energy and is responsible for the accelerating
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expansion of the universe also needs revision.
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Instead, he proposes a consonant that accounts for the evolution
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of the coupling constants. Gupta says this modification of the
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Cosmological model helps address the puzzle of small galaxy sizes
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observed in the early universe allowing for more accurate
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observations.
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Of course, this is all just a hypothesis but it adds to a
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growing list of ideas to try and explain early cosmology.
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Although I myself still prefer the idea of Time itself
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operating at a slower rate during the earlier stages of the
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universe's existence. But of course, none of this provides a
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satisfactory explanation for the cosmic inflation which must have
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occurred in the opening seconds of the universe.
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Temporal anomalies excluded this Space Time. Still to come a
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spectacular new image of the Saturnian system by the James
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Webb Space telescope and Australia to grow plants on the
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Moon. All that and more still to come on Space Time.
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After recent observations of Uranus Neptune and Jupiter
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NASA's James Webb Space telescope has now taken some
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Time out of its busy research program to undertake a quick
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look at the spectacular ring dwarf of Saturn. The stunning
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new image shows Saturn's iconic rings seeming to eerily glow.
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The incredible infrared picture also unveils unexpected features
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in Saturn's atmosphere. The image serves as context for an
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observing program that will test the telescope's ability to
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detect faint moons around the planet and its bright rings.
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Any newly observed moons could help scientists put together a
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more complete picture of the current system of Saturn, as
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well as its past methane gas absorbs almost all of the
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sunlight falling onto the atmosphere in this image, which
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is taken at a specific wavelength of 3.23 microns.
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Now, as a result, Saturn's familiar stripe patterns aren't
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visible because the methane rich upper atmosphere blocks out our
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view of the primary clouds. Instead, Saturn's rings appear
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dark and we see features associated with high altitude
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stratospheric aerosols, including large dark and a few
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structures in Saturn's northern hemisphere that don't align with
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the planet's lines of latitude.
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Interestingly, scientists also spotted similar features in the
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early web knee camp images of Jupiter. Now, unlike its
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atmosphere, Saturn's rings lack methane. So at this infrared
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wavelength, they're no darker than usual and thus easily
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outshine the darkened planet.
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It provides an eerie view. The new image of Saturn also reveals
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intricate details within the ring system showcasing several
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of the planet's moons like Dion Enceladus and Tes over the past
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few decades missions like NASA's pioneer 11, the Voyager one and
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two spacecraft and the Cassini mission, as well as the Hubble
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space telescope have all observed Saturn's atmospheres
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and rings in exquisite detail.
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And this now adds to that database, moving from the inner
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to the outer features of Saturn's rings are the dark sea
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ring. The bright B ring and the narrow and dark Cassini division
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and the medium bright A ring with the dark anee gap at its
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outer edge.
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Additionally, off the outer edge of the A ring is the narrow
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strand known as the F ring. The image shows the rings both
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casting a shadow onto the planet and vice versa.
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Thereby creating some interesting visual effects in
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depth exposures will allow scientists to investigate
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Satin's rings further including the thin G ring and the diffuse
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E ring. Saturn's rings consist of an assortment of rocky and
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icy fragments ranging in size from chunks as largest mountains
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to tiny fragments less than a grain of sand.
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Recently, researchers used web to explore Enceladus and
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discovered a substantial plume emanating from the Moon's south
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pole. The plume contains particles and copious amounts of
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water vapor which contribute to forming Satin's ear ring. The
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observations are also showing seasonal differences between
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Saturn's north and south poles.
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It's currently summertime in Saturn's northern hemisphere
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while the southern hemisphere is emerging from its winter
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darkness. However, the northern pole still appears unusually
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dark that could be due to some sort of unknown seasonal process
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affecting polar aerosols.
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A faint brightening at the edge of Saturn's disk might be
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attributed to high altitude methane fluorescence or it could
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be emissions from the ionosphere's tri hydrogen ions
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spectroscopy from web could help to resolve the issue.
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And if you want to see the images for yourself, just go to
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the Space Time website. This is Space Time still to come. A new
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Australian experiment to grow plants on the Moon. And later in
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the science report, Planet Earth experiences its hottest week on
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record all that and more still to come on Space Time.
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Australian scientists have announced a bold plan to grow
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seedlings on the Moon. By 2026 the Australian Lunar experiment
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promoting horticulture or Alif project, which is being funded
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by the Australian Space Agency's Moon to Mars initiative is
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designed to develop a greater understanding of horticulture in
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extreme environments.
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The joint project involving the Royal Melbourne Institute Of
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Technology, the Queensland University Of Technology, the
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Australian National University and Israel's Ben Gurion
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University is investigating whether seedlings can grow on
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the lunar surface. The experiment is of fundamental
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biological interest and importance for future manned
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missions to the Moon.
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And Mars, if we ever want to set up colonies on these worlds, we
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need to learn how to survive there independent of the earth.
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The project's co founder and engineering lead Dr Graham
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Dorrington from RMIT says the seeds and plants will be
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transported in a special design in a medically sealed chamber
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equipped with sensors, water and a camera and mounted aboard a
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lunar Lander slated to launch in 2026.
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He says the biggest challenge in designing the chamber involves
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maintaining stable conditions inside it in order to permit
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germination on the lunar surface where external surface
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temperatures fluctuate from highs of 80 degrees Celsius down
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to lows of minus 180 degrees Celsius.
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And of course, the chamber also needs to be really light weight
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no more than 1.5 kg. And it needs to be able to operate on
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minimal power while transmitting data by way of the Lander back
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to earth using data rates of less than 40 kilobits per
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second. Darrington says these are all considerable challenges.
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Previous and current experiments in low earth orbit are showing
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scientists that some plants grow differently in microgravity
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conditions. However, it's been difficult to work out exactly
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why. That's the case. Furthermore, the harsh lunar
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environment with its then exosphere, rapidly changing
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temperatures and relatively poor soil properties mean that
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whatever humans grow on the lunar surface will need to be
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hardy.
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One of the plants being considered for the mission is
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rape seed. A yellow flower plant grown for a range of food
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production and industrial uses. Preliminary results suggest that
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this could be a good candidate in terms both of extreme
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temperature tolerance and germination speed needed for
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surviving a mission to the Moon. Or Mars.
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After landing on the lunar surface, the plant's growth and
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general health will be monitored and the data in images sent back
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to earth RMIT will also be contributing computer science
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expertise for data compression to enable this part of the
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mission and citizen scientists and school kids around the world
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will be invited to participate given the data as it comes in so
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they can conduct their own experiments to see which plant
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varieties have the best chance of growing on the Moon.
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : When you take an experiment up to the is
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it's really in shirt sleeve conditions if you think about
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inside the, well, they are having experiments done outside,
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but most of the experiment is done inside in shirt sleeves on
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of course, highly variable.
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And you've got a limit on if you've got that payload on a
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Lander, you've got to deal with that thermal swing. Also on the
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transit to the Moon, there's very little opportunity to
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control the temperature with very little power. So you have
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quite big temperature swings on the way to the Moon. The
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radiation environment is slightly worse.
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Well, we don't know exactly what the conditions be. It depends on
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the Time of landing and what's up to 25 but it's going to be
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slightly higher radiation levels, which may be slightly
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different than the but not tremendously. And of course, the
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main difference is that it's at 1/6 gravity.
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So there have been experiments done at 1/6 gravity for short
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periods of Time on the ISS. But most of the experiments of
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course, are done in microgravity where there's all sorts of
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different responses, phototropic responses of the plant. So
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that's all well understood, but very little data on what would
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happen at 1/6 gravity.
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STUART GARY: These will be seedlings when they go up.
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : I take it, the biology team have got at
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the moment, very many varied opinions about how that should
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be, how that should be done and what should be carried. So, in
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fact, one of the types of plants that are considered a so called
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resurrection plants, which are not seedlings, but it will be
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small, but they are already grown.
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And then the aim is to resurrect them on the lunar surface. But
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if it is seeds and seedlings, it will be ones that have to
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germinate within relatively short window. We're expecting
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the Lander to bit down the surface soon after lunar dawn.
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And then we've got a limited window and that depends on the
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inclination that's finally picked for the Lander probably
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around 55 degrees. We don't know yet that invasion will set the
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temperature and the temperature rises and then we have to manage
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that. So we think we've got a limited wind 70 two hours.
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STUART GARY: Can't just plant them in the soil. What's the
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proposal?
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : The proposal is to put some plants
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or seeds in a small chamber. It's about the chamber, total
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volume is quite small. It's about 200 millimeters by 100
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millimeters diameter and any weighs 1.5 kg. And that chamber
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will have air in it at one bar. And our aim is to germinate the
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seeds or add water to them, make them grow on the lunar surface.
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For a limited period of Time, we have a period of about 72 hours
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in which to demonstrate, we can do this. And in that Time
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winter, we've got to keep the temperature in the chamber
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within quite constrained bounds around 25 C. When the lunar
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surface temperature will be changing more widely.
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STUART GARY: You're in an environment where temperature
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swings will be quite dramatic. You'll be there in the daytime.
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So it's going to get awfully hot.
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : It'll be inside the and the Landers cover
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what we call multi layer installation. So it doesn't
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really matter. It's orientation because the bulk temperatures
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are the same inside. But that is going to be a challenge. The
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actual orientation, the Lander relative to the sun at dawn will
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be a factor in our thermal calculations. That's an
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important one.
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STUART GARY: Because it's only 72 hours.
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : Well, that's the window. We're sort of
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guaranteed. The Lander's battery has got a limited life, but
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we're actually hopeful it will be extended longer than that.
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And actually, if we have a landing at 55 degrees, we think
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that the actual peak temperature reached by our payload will be
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not too large and we think we can probably actually extend
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that to possibly, well, it's not clear but possibly as much as 10
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days.
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So that's the longest winter we've got the, the objective is
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to achieve the mission as it were and demonstrate the plant
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growth and get the photograph of the plant within those 72 hours.
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STUART GARY: And so there's this chamber, I guess it's sort of
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like a terrarium in a way we call it a luna environment.
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Plants breathe co two and breathe out oxygen. So I guess
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you don't need to supply extra oxygen at this stage. You will
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need to provide light back.
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : Well, because we're doing such a small
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mass of seedlings, the actual volume there in there is
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sufficient for that period. So we don't need to add extra co
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two or whatever. And also some plants do germinate in the dark,
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of course, but we will be using lead lighting in the ice and
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also the basin, the, whether we use, what frequency.
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STUART GARY: Depend on the plan, won't it?
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : And it's usually a mixture of red and
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blue and a particular frequencies is considered to be
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quite good. And all the people doing vertical farming are, the.
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STUART GARY: Plants will be surviving on their own, built in
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supplies of food, you won't be adding nutrients to the soil. I
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take it.
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : Well, no, some of the biologists want to
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look at growth accelerators and things like that. So again, the
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choice of species is going to be quite interesting and there's an
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interest in seed tolerance to arid and conditions and hot
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conditions.
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And that is a sort of spin off of the project. If you like a
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research spin off for how we can make more tolerant adverse
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conditions. So that could be the way the seeds are treated or the
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way the substrates were used.
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STUART GARY: And then there's the issue of water. Will they
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need watering during that Time or will the soils be?
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : What's interesting is that seeds are
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very tolerant when they're the desiccated state? Just like the
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resurrection plant, they're very tolerant to extreme conditions
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when they defeated the state.
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But in order to German, that you have to release water and
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release the water onto the plants and then they are quite
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sensitive to their conditions, they become much more sensitive
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to the temperature. So yes, we will have an event where we add
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water to the plants. That's a key event in the sequence, of
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course, basically pre programmed.
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STUART GARY: So all this will be a self contained package. Will
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it have its own power supply? We'll be drawing power from the
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spacecraft.
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : We're just drawing another challenge.
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We're drawing power from the spacecraft. We're limited to an
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average of about three watt. There's a budget, very much a
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budget on that. Yeah, and we have got some power on transit
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as well at the moment, which is also very useful to help us
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solve a lot of the problems, particularly getting too cold.
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STUART GARY: And the other issue you'll have, of course, will be
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lunar radiation. We don't have an atmosphere or major magnetic
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field on the Moon. So consequently, these plants are
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going to have to handle degree of radiation.
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : Well, again, that's an area that
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hasn't been well looked at, but we've got built into this
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project, a test plan with ANSTO and the Accelerator Anu, which
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is capable of firing quite high energy protons. We plan to put
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some plants in that and see how they turn out. The plants are
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quite good at DNA at radiation tolerance.
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They seem to be able to self repair some of them. So that's
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quite an interesting aspect of the project. So in this
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particular mission 72 hours not going to be a major issue, but
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there's of academic interest as well, the future where the
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plants can tolerate these high radiation levels.
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STUART GARY: Because when you're growing plants on the
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International Space Station, apart from one or two orbital
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locations such as the South Atlantic anomaly, you're still
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protected by the Van Allen Radiation Belt. So the radiation
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doses will be very different. Once you're on the far side of
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that.
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : There will be high energy particles
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solar 25 ft. We're expecting that to be an issue also for the
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electronics, by the way. So we're doing testing on the
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electronics as well. But look, I think that makes it interesting
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and that I don't think it's such a major problem, to be honest
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with you because plants seem to be much more tolerant to
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radiation damage. And why that is this interesting?
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STUART GARY: You'll be monitoring this thing live as it
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unfolds or will you be limited in the amount of bandwidth you
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get to?
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : We're very limited on bandwidth. Look,
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we've also got the dish, they have agreed to agree to allow us
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to use the dish on a commercial basis. So we'll be able to
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download using that. But even so we're limited them on bandwidth,
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maybe down to 40 kilowatts per second. So we're actually only
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planning to send back periodically pictures, not video
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of the plants as they grow on. And even then we use data.
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STUART GARY: Compression learning all this. This will
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help with what the idea of establishing human colonies on
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the Moon. And they eventually.
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : I mean, that is a view that people take
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that it could be useful information for development of
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closed system in the future. There could be hundreds of years
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from now generations beyond us that they could be happening.
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But I think primary interest in doing it is find out what
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happens.
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STUART GARY: You don't want to be taking your food and water
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with you once you start sending people to the Moon and Mars, if
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you don't have to, if you can grow stuff in situ and get your
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water in situ through reclamation and they're doing
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that now on the ISS, I think 98 per cent of the water they drink
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now is recycled.
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : And for the near term carry, I think
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near term artemis will be print packaged food. Of course. Yeah,
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there's a strong argument in general in the future, in situ
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resource utilization is going to be used because it's so
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tremendously ener expensive to take something from the earth
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through our gravity.
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Well to space or to the Moon, it's much easier to get stuff
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from the lunar surface even to earth orbit in terms
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energetically. So you can argue that there's going to be a lot
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of in situ resource utilization in the future.
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STUART GARY: And we're seeing that here on earth too, aren't
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we? With vertical farming becoming more and more popular
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in some crowded cities?
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DR GRAHAM DORRINGTON : I think so. And it's a very much of a
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growth industry. And I think you'll see more and more people
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kind of doing small using micro units to grow microgreens. In
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fact, one of our partner companies micropod market, the
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product which I've been using and where you grow seedlings at
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home. And that's been an eye opener to me as an engineer to
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get involved in that.
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Our seed mission is just a sort of small attempt to get a
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payload, just a functional payload on the Moon and
00:21:03
demonstrate something. And the primary purpose was for
00:21:06
education. I should have said that we were trying to inspire
00:21:08
the next generation. And so what we want to do is basically go
00:21:12
out to schools and say, hey, what seed would you grow the
00:21:15
Moon and let them make their own terrariums and experiment.
00:21:19
And then have a website where we show our lunar lunar terrarium
00:21:23
or luna with what's happening, our ground based analog
00:21:26
experiment one G and their experiments. So they kind of
00:21:29
participate in it rather than just being bystanders to the
00:21:32
event. You see what I'm saying? It's kind of trying to make more
00:21:35
information. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
00:21:37
Yes. And we try to involve, involve schools, school teachers
00:21:41
in Time will get this and we're trying to get this sort of
00:21:44
community going where everyone's more inclusive. We're trying to
00:21:47
make it much more inclusive in effect and encourage the mo is
00:21:52
to try and use that next generation, take an interest in
00:21:56
this whole domain. So encourage them into this area.
00:21:59
STUART GARY: That's Dr Graeme Dorrington from RMIT and this is
00:22:04
Space Time and Time that to take a brief look at some of the
00:22:23
other stories making news in science. This week with the
00:22:26
science report, the world has just experienced its hottest
00:22:30
week on record. Early data from the World Meteorological
00:22:33
Organization at NASA indicates the first week of July was the
00:22:37
hottest globally since records began.
00:22:40
It comes after the hottest individual days on record last
00:22:44
week. And the World Meteorological Organisation's
00:22:46
Declaration of a New El Nino event, the World Meteorological
00:22:50
Organization says these records are coming despite some areas
00:22:54
including Western Australia, the Western United States and even
00:22:57
Western Russia recording cooler than normal temperatures
00:23:00
throughout June.
00:23:01
The observations also show Antarctic Sea ice was at its
00:23:05
lowest extent for the month of June. Since records began the
00:23:09
record breaking temperatures on land and on the ocean have
00:23:11
potentially devastating impacts on ecosystems and the
00:23:14
environment.
00:23:16
They highlight the far reaching changes taking place in the
00:23:19
earth system as a result of human induced climate change.
00:23:22
Meteorologists say that humans are in uncharted territory and
00:23:27
we can expect more records to fall as El Nino develops further
00:23:30
and these impacts will extend well into 2024.
00:23:34
According to provisional analysis based on a re analysis
00:23:37
of data from Japan named JRA three Q average global
00:23:41
temperature on July the seventh was 17.24 degrees Celsius that
00:23:46
0.3 degrees Celsius above the previous record of 16.94 degrees
00:23:51
Celsius recorded back on August the 16th 2016. And that was also
00:23:56
a strong El Nino year.
00:24:00
Scientists in the US have published research on the
00:24:02
creation of embryo models from stem cells in order to mimic the
00:24:06
developmental processes that occur in early human embryos.
00:24:10
The details released in the Journal Nature follow a flurry
00:24:13
of reports about similar research over the last few
00:24:16
months by other groups which has been provided to the
00:24:18
International Society For Stem Cell Researchers annual meeting
00:24:22
in Boston. The authors created models of embryos from stem
00:24:25
cells showing how to already resembles the human embryo at
00:24:28
days 9 to 14 after fertilization.
00:24:32
But they say because the embryo lacks the cells that are
00:24:34
involved in the development of the placenta. They cannot become
00:24:37
a fetus. They say their system provides a reproducible and easy
00:24:42
to control platform to understand the basic mechanisms
00:24:45
that underlie human development, including new ways to examine
00:24:48
developmental issues.
00:24:51
Scientists are hoping to make the world's first safe and
00:24:54
efficient nontoxic aqueous aluminum radical battery. Most
00:24:58
batteries contain hazardous materials including lead cadmium
00:25:02
and mercury which all pollute the environment once they're
00:25:04
disposed of a new research reported in the journal of the
00:25:08
American Chemical Society looked at the electro chemistry of
00:25:11
stable radicals.
00:25:13
Stable radicals are a class of organic electro active molecules
00:25:17
that are being widely used in different organic battery
00:25:19
systems. The first design of aluminum radical batteries which
00:25:23
use water based electrolytes that a fire retardant and air
00:25:27
stable are developing a stable 1.25 volt output at a capacity
00:25:31
of 110 mil a per hours per gram of mass.
00:25:34
1/800 cycles with only a 0 per cent loss per cycle.
00:25:40
Multivalent metal iron batteries including aluminum, zinc and
00:25:44
magnesium, use abundant elements in the earth's crust and provide
00:25:47
much higher energy density than lithium ion batteries.
00:25:51
Aluminum ion batteries are attracting attention because
00:25:54
aluminum is the third most abundant element which makes it
00:25:57
a potential sustainable and low cost energy storage system.
00:26:01
However, one of the major challenges for current aluminum
00:26:03
ion batteries is the low cathode efficiency. Organic conjugated
00:26:08
polymers could address the ion transport issue but their
00:26:12
battery voltage up of performance remains poor.
00:26:16
You know what's really weird how the dog or cat always know when
00:26:20
they're about to be taken to the vets, you don't have to say or
00:26:23
do anything, they just know and it's not like you're doing
00:26:27
anything different from when you're going out, going to work
00:26:29
or going to the store and you get those big sad eyes, you're
00:26:32
leaving me.
00:26:32
I'll never see you again. Please don't go. But when it's a vet
00:26:36
appointment, they're gone, they're nowhere to be found. And
00:26:40
if you notice it's the same, when you try to give them their
00:26:42
medicine, they'll eat any disgusting, rotten piece of food
00:26:46
they find on the ground.
00:26:48
But you try to give them the best chunk of filet steak with a
00:26:51
pill hidden in the middle and all of a sudden they're Gordon
00:26:53
Ramsey. A new survey claims that 80% of British dog owners have
00:26:58
seen this behavior in their pets and they believe it's a sign of
00:27:02
psychic abilities. Tim Mendham from Australian skeptics says
00:27:06
it's a sign of the poor and normal.
00:27:09
TIM MENDHAM: Of course, we all know that the Brits are very
00:27:10
keen on their pets, especially dogs. So this organization that
00:27:13
does dog walking, that sort of profession, did a survey and
00:27:17
they found that eight out of 10 British dog owners think their
00:27:20
pet has psychic powers. In fact, 65 per cent say that they let
00:27:23
their, what they describe as poor and normal poo.
00:27:27
They allow them to make decisions for them. Like this
00:27:29
are often life changing sort of dogs and things. And cats and
00:27:33
pets are, can be very sensitive to environments and things, but
00:27:36
I wouldn't necessarily ask them to make decisions about them.
00:27:38
For instance, 14 per cent of these owners said that they'd
00:27:40
allow their dog to sniff out an unsuitable partner. Maybe they
00:27:43
smell, I don't know, nine per cent said that their dog can
00:27:46
pick a sports result. And seven per cent even say that they use
00:27:50
their animals to investigate marriage proposals and job
00:27:53
offers.
00:27:54
They didn't follow that up to see if they actually got married
00:27:56
or got the job. But there's a lot of that came out of these
00:27:59
things that 0 to 1000 people through an online network of pet
00:28:05
sitter and dog walkers. So there are people who are committed
00:28:07
already to animals, but they have a lot of.
00:28:11
STUART GARY: Animals can do, they do pick up seismic waves in
00:28:14
the ground before earthquakes. They do sniff out chemicals
00:28:17
which people emit in the process of dying. So there are these
00:28:21
things, these stories of a dog or a cat will sit with somebody
00:28:25
who's going to die that night. That's true. That happens. But
00:28:28
there's a reason for it. There's a scientific reason behind it.
00:28:31
TIM MENDHAM: Yes, dogs are very sensitive with their smells.
00:28:32
They can say the chemicals emitted also the cancer cases
00:28:36
and that sort of stuff as well. So, I mean, there's a COVID-19
00:28:39
test now, a role of animals in this case, but I wouldn't use it
00:28:43
for checking out whether you could marry someone.
00:28:45
This survey was very comprehensive, asking a lot of
00:28:48
questions. They say that 25 per cent of people trusted their dog
00:28:51
more than their partner or even themselves. So it's an
00:28:56
interesting, you know, they'll let the dog choose how they're
00:28:59
going to go for a walk where they're going to go for a walk.
00:29:00
If you cut down every other way that dog will take it, the dog
00:29:03
will choose what to eat. Yeah.
00:29:05
STUART GARY: But then again, dogs will smell bad stuff in
00:29:07
foods. Yeah, they'll see things in the distance that are
00:29:11
dangerous and that's why they'll get you to walk the other way.
00:29:14
TIM MENDHAM: All logical explanations. Yes, but not for
00:29:16
all these things. I don't know if a marriage proposal or an
00:29:18
unsuitable partner is the thing that a dog can smell. Maybe it
00:29:20
is, maybe you say a very smelly person is not suitable as a life
00:29:23
partner. But there's a lot of stuff that they say that they
00:29:26
allow their dogs to choose even dancers that are picking the
00:29:29
Eurovision song contest.
00:29:30
As they said, there was a dog that picked the outcome of the
00:29:33
Eurovision song contest. Well, there's so many players in the
00:29:36
Eurovision song contest. I'm sure there's a dog that picked
00:29:38
out the winner doing it. Reliably is a bit of a hard
00:29:41
thing as we have found out when we're looking at all the animal
00:29:43
predictions.
00:29:44
STUART GARY: That's Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics and
00:30:02
that's the show for now. Spacetime is available every
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