S27E134: Perseverance's Rocky Ascent, Ramses Asteroid Ambition, and Shenzhou's Space Station Arrival

[00:00:00] This is SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 134, full broadcast on the 6th of November 2024.

[00:00:06] Coming up on SpaceTime, Perseverance struggles as it tries to climb up the Jezero Crater Ridgeline,

[00:00:13] Asus Ramsey's mission to study a doomsday asteroid, and Beijing Shenzhou 19 arrives at China Space Station.

[00:00:21] All that and more coming up on SpaceTime.

[00:00:25] Welcome to SpaceTime with Stuart Gary.

[00:00:45] NASA's Mars Perseverance rover has been struggling to negotiate a steeply sloping route up Jezero Crater's western wall

[00:00:52] with the aim of trying to crest the ring by early next month.

[00:00:56] During the climb, the rover's imaged a sweeping view of Jezero Crater's interior and the tracks it's left behind

[00:01:02] as it struggles to ascend the slippery 20-degree slope along the way.

[00:01:06] The rover captured its latest panoramic view near a location called Far Away Rock about halfway along the climb up the crater wall.

[00:01:14] While Perseverance has climbed 20-degree inclines before, and both NASA's Curiosity and Opportunity rovers have crested hills at least 10 degrees steeper,

[00:01:22] this is the first time it's travelled up such a steep grade on such a slippery surface.

[00:01:26] See, during much of the climb, the rover's been driving over loosely packed dust and sand with only a thin brittle crust.

[00:01:34] On several days, Perseverance only covered about 50% of the distance it would have on less slippery surfaces,

[00:01:40] and on one occasion it only covered about 20% of the planned route.

[00:01:44] Camden Miller, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, says

[00:01:49] Mars rovers have driven over steeper terrain, and they've driven over more slippery terrain as well.

[00:01:54] But this is the first time one's needed to handle both at the same time and on such a scale.

[00:01:59] He says for every two steps forward, Perseverance has been taking at least one step back.

[00:02:05] When the rover's mission managers saw this was trending towards a long hard slog,

[00:02:08] they looked at new ways of climbing the ridge. One idea involved driving backwards up the slope.

[00:02:14] That's because testing on Earth showed that under certain conditions

[00:02:17] the rover's rocker-bogey suspension system maintained better traction during reverse driving.

[00:02:23] They also looked at the idea of cross-slope driving, zigzagging backwards and forwards.

[00:02:28] A third option involved driving closer to the northern edge of the Summerland Trail.

[00:02:32] That's the name mission managers had given to the rover's path up the crater rim.

[00:02:36] Now data from these efforts showed that while all three approaches enhanced traction,

[00:02:41] sticking close to the slope's northern edge proved to be the most beneficial.

[00:02:45] The rover's planners believed the presence of larger rocks closer to the surface there made the difference.

[00:02:51] The science team wants to get to the top of the crater's rim as soon as possible

[00:02:55] because of the scientific opportunities available up there.

[00:02:58] In a few weeks, Perseverance is expected to crest the crater rim at a location the science team are calling Lookout Hill.

[00:03:04] From there, it'll drive about another 450 metres to Witch Hazel Hill.

[00:03:09] Orbital data shows that Witch Hazel Hill contains lightly toned layered bedrock,

[00:03:14] and scientists want to compare this new site to Bright Angel.

[00:03:17] That's the area where Perseverance recently discovered and sampled the unusual share of a falls rock.

[00:03:22] Ken Fairley is NASA's Mars Perseverance rover's project scientist.

[00:03:31] Perseverance is exploring Jezero equator, where an ancient lake and river system once existed.

[00:03:36] If microbes ever lived here, signs of them could be preserved in these rocks.

[00:03:39] About three and a half billion years ago, a river carved a canyon through the crater rim,

[00:03:44] filling the crater with water and depositing sand and rocks that formed a delta.

[00:03:48] On Earth, the record of such an ancient river and lake would have been erased long ago.

[00:03:53] That's why sending a robotic explorer like Perseverance is so valuable.

[00:03:57] Mars is a special place that preserves a unique record of things that happened in the first billion years of the solar system.

[00:04:05] In this area, different rock layers record different parts of the crater's history.

[00:04:09] Flat, light-colored rocks were deposited on the banks of a river flowing slowly across the landscape.

[00:04:14] Boulders were deposited later in what was likely a raging torrent.

[00:04:18] Lab equipment on Earth can accurately measure when a volcanic rock was formed.

[00:04:22] So if we can return a sample of this lava to Earth in the future,

[00:04:25] we may know when and for how long water flowed into Jezero.

[00:04:31] From here, Perseverance will continue west.

[00:04:33] We're lucky to have a route the rover can safely drive up the rim right where we need it,

[00:04:38] exploring rocks far older than those in Jezero and produced in an entirely different way.

[00:04:42] Since finishing its study of the crater floor,

[00:04:45] Perseverance has been climbing the delta and piecing together the history of this once watery environment.

[00:04:50] That's Ken Fairley, NASA's Mars Perseverance rover project scientist.

[00:04:54] And this is Space Time.

[00:04:56] Still to come,

[00:04:57] ESA's Ramsey mission to study a doomsday asteroid

[00:05:00] and the Shenzhou-19 spacecraft arrives at China Space Station.

[00:05:05] All that and more still to come on Space Time.

[00:05:08] The European Space Agency has signed a 63 million euro deal

[00:05:28] to begin preparatory work for its proposed Ramsey mission to study the asteroid Apophis.

[00:05:33] On April 13, 2029, the 375-metre-wide asteroid will pass just 32,000 kilometres above the Earth's surface.

[00:05:42] That's closer than the orbit of many satellites.

[00:05:45] This rare event will offer a critical chance for scientific research and advancements in planetary defence.

[00:05:52] The asteroid's close encounter will likely expose subsurface material,

[00:05:56] presenting a valuable opportunity to study Apophis' composition and structure.

[00:06:01] Understanding how Apophis reacts to gravitational tidal forces during the flyby

[00:06:05] could be key to future efforts to divert hazardous asteroids.

[00:06:10] Ramsey's will be modelled on the Harris spacecraft,

[00:06:12] which launched last month on a mission to study the effects of the DART asteroid impact mission

[00:06:17] on the near-Earth asteroid Didymos and its tiny moon Dimorphos.

[00:06:21] The DART impactor smashed a huge crater in Dimorphos,

[00:06:25] spraying out a massive debris cloud.

[00:06:27] It also changed Dimorphos' orbit around Didymos, shortening it by more than 32 minutes.

[00:06:34] Ramsey's will need to launch by early 2028 in order to reach Apophis in time for its near-Earth flyby.

[00:06:40] So what do we know about this near-Earth asteroid 199942 Apophis?

[00:06:45] Well, it first triggered alarm bells in the astronomical community back in 2004,

[00:06:50] when initial observations suggested there was a possibility that it could crash into the Earth on April 13, 2029.

[00:06:58] Now, such an impact would have had global consequences well beyond the destruction it would have created at ground zero.

[00:07:05] Apophis would have impacted Earth with kinetic energy equivalent to 1200 megatons of TNT.

[00:07:11] Now, by comparison, the impacts that created Meteor Crater in Arizona about 50,000 years ago

[00:07:17] and the Tunguska event in Siberia in 1908 are estimated to have been between 3 and 10 megatons.

[00:07:23] The biggest hydrogen bomb ever exploded, the Soviet Union Tsar Bomba, was around 57 megatons,

[00:07:29] while the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, at the time the loudest noise ever heard by humans on planet Earth,

[00:07:36] was the equivalent of roughly 200 megatons.

[00:07:39] The exact effects of any impact would have varied based on the asteroid's composition and the location and angle of impact.

[00:07:46] But any impact would have decimated an area of thousands of square kilometers,

[00:07:50] creating an impact crater more than five kilometers wide and triggering major tsunamis,

[00:07:56] seismic activity, volcanic eruptions and climate-changing debris clouds.

[00:08:00] Planet Earth would have entered an impact winter.

[00:08:04] Luckily, as more detailed follow-up observations came in,

[00:08:08] the possibility of a 2029 impact was eliminated.

[00:08:11] But at a 32,000-kilometer flyby, it still would have been a very close approach,

[00:08:16] with the closest part of the flyby being clearly visible in the skies over Europe, Africa and Asia.

[00:08:22] Astronomers say this will be the closest asteroid of its size in recorded history,

[00:08:27] visible with the unaided eye from all rural and darker suburban locations,

[00:08:31] and clearly visible with binoculars from most locations.

[00:08:35] And the story of Apophis doesn't end there.

[00:08:38] After the initial calculations cleared Apophis' 2029 close encounter,

[00:08:42] there were still concerns about a possible gravitational keyhole just 800 meters wide,

[00:08:48] which, if the asteroid passed through it at the right angle,

[00:08:50] would have resulted in an impacting trajectory exactly seven years later, on April 13, 2036.

[00:08:57] Luckily, as continued observations came in, further refining the space rock's orbit,

[00:09:02] the likelihood of an impact continued to decline.

[00:09:05] It turns out there was the risk of another Earth impacting trajectory by Apophis in 2068.

[00:09:10] So, once again, further orbital calculations were made, and this too was eventually ruled out.

[00:09:17] Astronomers are now fairly confident that Apophis poses no threat to planet Earth for at least the next 100 years.

[00:09:24] This is space time.

[00:09:27] Still to come, China's Shenzhou-19 spacecraft safely arrives and docks with the nation's Tiangong space station,

[00:10:01] The Shenzhou-19 was launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket from the Zhukuan satellite launch centre in northwestern China.

[00:10:14] Its crew of three Tachynauts will spend the next six months on station,

[00:10:19] carrying out a range of experiments, including some involving the manufacturing of bricks made from compounds imitating lunar soil.

[00:10:26] That's part of China's ambitious space program to get Tachynauts on the lunar surface by 2030.

[00:10:32] The material for the lunar brick test will be delivered to the Tiongong space station by the Tianzhu-8 cargo ship,

[00:10:39] which will launch later this month.

[00:10:41] The lunar brick test will see how this material fares in extreme radiation, microgravity and temperature conditions.

[00:10:48] The Shenzhou-19 crew members will replace three Tachynauts currently on station who will return to Earth later this week.

[00:10:55] This is space time.

[00:11:12] And time now to take another brief look at some of the other stories making news in science this week with the Science Report.

[00:11:18] A new study claims more than 12% of Australian teens now identify as being either gay, bisexual, pansexual or asexual.

[00:11:28] The findings reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association are based on a study of 6,388 students.

[00:11:35] The study also shows that an additional 3.3% of school kids consider themselves gender diverse.

[00:11:42] The researchers base their study on 14-year-old teens between 2019 and 2021.

[00:11:48] The authors say their study shows that sexuality and gender diversity are associated with each other,

[00:11:53] and both were associated with younger age and a diagnosis of poor mental health and disability.

[00:12:00] The scourge of microplastics isn't just contaminating humans, it's affecting all other animals on the planet as well.

[00:12:08] A new study reported in the journal PLAS One has found that butthlenose dolphins are breathing in microplastic contamination.

[00:12:16] Researchers reached their conclusions after collecting air breathed out through the blowholes of 11 dolphins at two sites in the Gulf of Mexico,

[00:12:23] and they found that they all exhaled microplastics totaling some 54 pieces.

[00:12:28] Although the number of microplastic particles being exhaled were split almost evenly between two sites in Florida and Louisiana,

[00:12:35] there were differences in the plastics at the sites.

[00:12:38] Particles from dolphins in Florida were mostly fibres,

[00:12:41] while those in Louisiana all breathed out microplastic films.

[00:12:45] We already know through human studies that microplastic inhalation can cause lung damage.

[00:12:51] The study's authors say the dolphins inhalation of microplastics was especially concerning in the Louisiana site,

[00:12:57] where they already have lung diseases linked to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.

[00:13:04] A new study has shown that animal life is thriving in deep sea nooks and crannies deep below the sea floor.

[00:13:11] The discovery reported in the journal Nature Communications was made during an exploration of the Eastern Pacific Rise.

[00:13:17] The Eastern Pacific Rise is a volcanically active ridge on the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

[00:13:23] It's a mid-ocean rise at a divergent tectonic plate boundary,

[00:13:27] located along the floor between the Pacific Plate to the west from the north to south North American Plate,

[00:13:32] the Riviera Plate, the Cocos Plate, the Nazca Plate and the Antarctic Plate.

[00:13:36] It runs south from the Gulf of California in the Salton Sea Basin in Southern California to the Pacific Antarctic Ridge near New Zealand.

[00:13:44] It contains a series of vents where the sea floor opens up and seawater meets magma from beneath the Earth's crust.

[00:13:51] The authors were able to send a remotely operated vehicle named Subartisan down to the sea floor.

[00:13:56] The SUV used its robotic arm to expose sections of the sea floor crust, revealing little cavities full of worms and snails.

[00:14:04] The scientists say it's likely lava from creatures living on the sea floor drop into these cavities, allowing life to develop there.

[00:14:12] Google's just released two new Chromebooks packed with new AI features.

[00:14:16] However, the cancer of work politics in programming remains a problem.

[00:14:22] With the details, we're joined by technology editor Alex Zaharov-Royt from TechAdvice.life.

[00:14:27] Yeah, well these are called Chromebook Plus.

[00:14:29] So you've got two distinct types of Chromebook.

[00:14:31] One is the standard Chromebook, which is available at cheaper prices.

[00:14:34] And then you have the Chromebook Plus.

[00:14:36] So these have higher specs.

[00:14:38] You either have an Intel Core i3 or an AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPU inside, 8GB or more of memory,

[00:14:45] 120GB or more of storage, and 1080p full HD or better displays.

[00:14:49] Obviously, if you get higher specs, it will cost more.

[00:14:52] But in Australia, we're looking at about $800 or so for one of the new ASUS models.

[00:14:57] And this is a Chromebook Plus.

[00:14:59] So inside there, you have the ability to get the AI to read you a web page,

[00:15:04] and you can then ask various questions about that particular page.

[00:15:08] And you've got live translate.

[00:15:09] So if you're watching a video on YouTube that is in a different language,

[00:15:12] it can instantly translate it with AI to whatever other language you want.

[00:15:17] For regular Chromebooks, which includes Chromebook Plus, you have the recorder app,

[00:15:21] which not only records and transcribes what it's hearing,

[00:15:25] they can give you summaries as well, which you expect from AI these days.

[00:15:28] Chromebook Plus also have the appearance effects and studio style mics for better calls in Zoom or Teams.

[00:15:34] And right on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen is the Gemini AI button,

[00:15:40] which brings up a chat GPT style text-based interface that allows you to ask any questions and speak with the computer.

[00:15:46] So there's plenty more.

[00:15:47] But the Chromebook and Chromebook Plus are an alternative to Windows devices,

[00:15:52] which are often blighted by viruses.

[00:15:54] And then Mac devices, which are personally, I think, are brilliant, but they usually tend to cost more.

[00:15:59] But you do get a total cost of ownership where you don't have to buy, generally speaking, any internet security software.

[00:16:06] I mean, viruses are pretty rare on Macs.

[00:16:08] They do exist, but you have to willfully type in your password when being prompted to install something.

[00:16:13] And often that is from pirate sites.

[00:16:15] So you get three months of Gemini advance for free with a regular Chromebook.

[00:16:19] And with the Chromebook Plus, you get a full year of it, which is, again, their most advanced AI.

[00:16:24] So I have seen out and about plenty of Macs, plenty of PCs, but I'm seeing more and more Chromebooks as well.

[00:16:29] It's become a viable third alternative, which is great for competition.

[00:16:34] Speaking of which, we also have news from Apple.

[00:16:35] Yes, they have launched their M4 chip as well as the M4 Pro and the M4 Max, which are for more professional users needing even more performance.

[00:16:44] We're talking about 1.8 times faster speeds than the original M1 Mac from 2020.

[00:16:50] And look, there's lots of other improvements inside with the neural engines.

[00:16:53] But what we have is a new Apple Mac Mini, which is only a little bit taller than the Apple TV.

[00:17:00] So they've managed to shrink that down inside.

[00:17:02] Now, there has been controversy where Apple has put the power button for the Mac Mini on the bottom of the unit, but it's not right on the bottom in the middle.

[00:17:10] There is a cooling grill with a fan inside and you can actually put your finger underneath to power off the Mac.

[00:17:18] But most people leave their Macs on and if you've got to shut it down, you click on the Apple menu in the top left hand corner and then click on shut down.

[00:17:23] I mean, holding the power button is often something you do to force the machine to turn off.

[00:17:29] Yeah, in case you're loading something that you shouldn't be.

[00:17:32] Yeah, after a few seconds.

[00:17:34] I mean, normally it's not off straight away.

[00:17:35] I mean, if you push it, it'll just go to sleep.

[00:17:37] But yeah, that little new Mac Mini is going to turn heads.

[00:17:40] And then of course we have the new, the regular iMac, which just comes with this base level M4.

[00:17:45] And then we have the new MacBook Pros, which have the ability to go to these faster chips.

[00:17:50] And we also have Thunderbolt 5 that's going to deliver 80 gigabits per second.

[00:17:54] And with bandwidth boost, it'll provide up to 120 gigabits.

[00:17:58] Now, normally you're talking 20 gigabits or even 40, I think, with the Thunderbolt 4.

[00:18:02] So this is a doubling and it just makes the transfer of data with a suitably equipped Thunderbolt 5 enclosure for your drive super fast.

[00:18:10] The M4 Macs also give you the fastest version of Apple Intelligence.

[00:18:14] Now, Apple Intelligence has only just launched last week on iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and MacOS 15.1.

[00:18:23] There'll be many more updates throughout the rest of 2025, one coming in December 2025.

[00:18:28] But this piecemeal approach has annoyed some people.

[00:18:31] They're saying that Apple Intelligence isn't as impressive as Chad Gibbity.

[00:18:34] But Apple normally isn't first to these things, they're last.

[00:18:36] They like to say whatever else does, look at all the mistakes they've made and then launch something.

[00:18:40] So the initial launch of Apple Intelligence is a bit underwhelming, but these new computers will give you the fastest performance.

[00:18:46] My question, however, isn't so much which is the fastest, but which is providing the most accurate information?

[00:18:52] Yeah, well, that is obviously a question all of the AI providers are talking about how they're working as hard as they can to minimize hallucinations.

[00:19:00] It's not just hallucinations. It's garbage being programmed into the systems.

[00:19:04] Yeah, well, that's right. If you try and do a search on Chad Gibbity and ask about Trump's assassination, I saw various AI systems trying to deny it happened at all.

[00:19:14] So yeah, woke AI, garbage in, garbage out.

[00:19:17] I mean, the other side of that coin is privacy and Apple is promising the most private AI experience.

[00:19:24] So there's a big battle that has been raging over the years about how much information these companies can slurp up from you.

[00:19:30] And that battle is not going to stop anytime soon.

[00:19:33] And it's only going to intensify as people try to ensure that their AI systems are not infiltrated by the woke mind writers.

[00:19:40] That's Alex Zaharov-Royt from techadvice.life.

[00:19:44] And that's the show for now.

[00:20:01] Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Acast, Amazon Music, Bytes.com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider and from Space Time with Stuart Gary dot com.

[00:20:20] Space Time is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both iHeart Radio and TuneIn Radio.

[00:20:29] And you can help to support our show by visiting the Space Time store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies.

[00:20:35] Or by becoming a Space Time patron, which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions of the show, as well as lots of bonus audio content which doesn't go to air, access to our exclusive Facebook group and other rewards.

[00:20:48] Just go to spacetimewithstuartgary.com for full details.

[00:20:53] And if you want more Space Time, please check out our blog where you'll find all the stuff we couldn't fit in the show, as well as heaps of images, news stories, loads of videos and things on the web I find interesting or amusing.

[00:21:05] Just go to spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com.

[00:21:08] That's all one word and that's Tumblr without the E.

[00:21:12] You can also follow us through at Stuart Gary on Twitter, at spacetimewithstuartgary on Instagram, through our Spacetime YouTube channel.

[00:21:20] And on Facebook, just go to facebook.com forward slash spacetimewithstuartgary.

[00:21:26] You've been listening to Spacetime with Stuart Gary.

[00:21:29] This has been another quality podcast production from bytes.com.