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Artemis Has a New Calendar · Made of Stars

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Speaker 1: Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
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Speaker 1: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
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Speaker 1: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
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Speaker 1: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar, asterism and uranus. Listen,
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Speaker 1: that's your own risk.
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Speaker 2: Go ahead.
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Speaker 3: When made of stars, made them stars, madies. When made
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Speaker 3: of stars, you could be from high they would New Mexicomus.
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Speaker 3: Where are.
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Speaker 4: Stars? When we are made of stars?
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Speaker 5: I'm Wes Carol, joined by my good friend, doctor Sean
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Speaker 5: cruizan executive director for Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space
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Speaker 5: Signed Center.
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Speaker 2: Hey Sean, Hey, we's good to be here today.
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Speaker 5: Now we didn't really address this last week, but just
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Speaker 5: in case, and it's not as soon as I started
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Speaker 5: to talk about it, it stopped. But you do have
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Speaker 5: it's a very it sets the tone for what we
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Speaker 5: talk about here on the show. But because of you
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Speaker 5: working there at the Coca Cola Space Science Center and
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Speaker 5: the fact that it is a museum and learning center
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Speaker 5: and all of those things you and you were telling
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Speaker 5: me last week, there's a new exhibit you guys have
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Speaker 5: that is just somewhere in the near proximity of your
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Speaker 5: office where you do the show from, and occasionally we
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Speaker 5: can hear what sounds like you're about your office might
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Speaker 5: be about to take off and blast off into space.
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Speaker 5: So I felt like last week maybe it would come up.
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Speaker 5: We didn't really get a chance to mention it, but
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Speaker 5: off and on, if you start to hear noises as
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Speaker 5: a listener that sounds like might be about to blast off,
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Speaker 5: just know that that's what's going on there in the background.
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Speaker 5: It's we've done the show before where you had like
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Speaker 5: we could hear voices of kids kind of in the background,
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Speaker 5: and those kinds of and I think that just adds
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Speaker 5: to the atmosphere of the show because it's what you
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Speaker 5: guys do. You have all these kids that come in
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Speaker 5: come through the facility, so having you know, sounds of
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Speaker 5: things blasting off in the back. When I was a kid,
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Speaker 5: I don't know think about this My early part of
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Speaker 5: and I've really talked about this, but part of what
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Speaker 5: got me into radio in the first place was playing
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Speaker 5: around with a tape recorder. My my younger brother Matt,
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Speaker 5: and I would make video or audio plays, basically radio plays,
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Speaker 5: and we would make them, and we would do all
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Speaker 5: our folly work and we would crumble up paper like
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Speaker 5: we were, you know, blasting off in a rocket and
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Speaker 5: things like that. So it kind of has that feel
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Speaker 5: to it, except you know, it actually sounds like a
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Speaker 5: rocket instead of it sounds like kids crumbling up paper.
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Speaker 2: You know what people might be thinking who haven't listened
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Speaker 2: to us for a long time, is that, Gollie, these
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Speaker 2: guys are just putting like cheesy rocket sound effects behind
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Speaker 2: their podcast. Is that just to try to create some
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Speaker 2: kind of an ambiance or something about No, it's it's
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Speaker 2: as West said, it's my it's my poorly insulated office
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Speaker 2: here at the museum. Right outside my wall, I have
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Speaker 2: something that's called our Rocket Builder game there.
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Speaker 5: It is right on queue. I could just hear it
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Speaker 5: as you were saying that.
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Speaker 2: And so absorb the rumble. Yeah, as we speak from
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Speaker 2: the Rocket Builder game, which is you know, probably probably
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Speaker 2: a grand total of about four feet from you know,
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Speaker 2: my recording device right now, there is a wall in between,
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Speaker 2: but really this wall is offering very little sonic protection.
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Speaker 2: And yeah, kids are playing with the Rocket Builder game
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Speaker 2: right outside the wall as we speak. In fact, if
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Speaker 2: you would like to come down listener and play with
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Speaker 2: the rocket Builder game or the mars Lander game, which
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Speaker 2: is also right outside my wall, where you can where
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Speaker 2: you can choose between the multi wheeled rover driving around
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Speaker 2: on the service of Mars, or you can actually switch
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Speaker 2: to the Ingenuity helicopter and fly around on surts of Mars.
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Speaker 2: These are two of the many attractions we have in
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Speaker 2: our exhibit gallery here at Columbus State University's Coca Cola
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Speaker 2: Space Science Center that you can bring the kids down
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Speaker 2: and enjoy real time. You don't have to just do
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Speaker 2: it on the podcast. You can enjoy it real time
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Speaker 2: and maybe even control these games yourself. There you go,
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Speaker 2: think about it, plan a trip soon.
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Speaker 5: I had a little bit of a moment where I went, wait,
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Speaker 5: did I for do we do the show and we're
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Speaker 5: doing the end part at the beginning? I just kind of.
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Speaker 2: That was just a shameless plug.
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Speaker 5: There's nothing shameless about it, because part of what we
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Speaker 5: do here is talk about what you guys do there.
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Speaker 5: So I don't know so as far as the content
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Speaker 5: of the show that I didn't accidentally fall asleep through
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Speaker 5: because for I mean a second, I just thought, wait
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Speaker 5: a minute, did I did I miss it? This has
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Speaker 5: been one of those things that I think we thought
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Speaker 5: there was always a possibility that this was an inevitable
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Speaker 5: announcement that was coming. We have addressed on this show
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Speaker 5: a few times the fact that there were some concerns
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Speaker 5: by some that maybe Artemis just wasn't quite ready for
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Speaker 5: prime time. It wasn't quite ready for the Ultimate Artemis three,
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Speaker 5: which was going to be a lunar lander with people
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Speaker 5: and boots on the ground and all those things, And
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Speaker 5: there were people who voiced concerns. We expressed on this
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Speaker 5: show that hey, we want them to do this. We
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Speaker 5: want them to do this safely. That's always the concern
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Speaker 5: at NASA, that's always the concern at SpaceX and Blue
5:34
Speaker 5: or all these companies. They all are, especially when you
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Speaker 5: talk about human lives. That's that's the thing. No one
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Speaker 5: is just launching people into space willing nelly, at least
5:47
Speaker 5: not on this continent. I can't speak for others. I
5:53
Speaker 5: don't know what's going on in other places where things
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Speaker 5: are falling out of the sky, like on houses and things.
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Speaker 5: But that's that's another that's another conversation for another time. However,
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Speaker 5: because we are kind of in a space race and
6:09
Speaker 5: we do have another country that seems willing to let
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Speaker 5: things land on people's houses, and for the sake of
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Speaker 5: moving forward, you know, there is a little urgency to
6:18
Speaker 5: this as far as trying to get our astronauts back
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Speaker 5: on the moon and even some international astronauts back on
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Speaker 5: the moon. So we're talking about Artemis. We've had Artemis
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Speaker 5: one successful, Artemis two, we keep the wet dress rehearsal
6:32
Speaker 5: hasn't gone the way they wanted twice, so now we're
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Speaker 5: looking at a earliest April first launch and Artemis three
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Speaker 5: was supposed to be the one to put boots on
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Speaker 5: the ground. Well, now we have had an announcement since
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Speaker 5: our last show where basically they've laid out what the
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Speaker 5: next few Artemis missions are actually going to look like.
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Speaker 4: Now.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so we talk a lot about how or we
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Speaker 2: have talked before about how we do our show on Thursday,
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Speaker 2: and it just seems like a lot happens on Thursday
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Speaker 2: and Friday at NASA. And this is just one of
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Speaker 2: those times where there was a major announcement that came
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Speaker 2: out less than twenty four hours after recorded our last podcast.
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Speaker 5: We called it.
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Speaker 2: They completely changed the Artemis architecture. Right, it's a complete
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Speaker 2: reformat of the whole program for Artemis, and you know,
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Speaker 2: we Another thing we've chatted about is Jared Isisigman being
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Speaker 2: the new director of NASA, and we always thought that
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Speaker 2: that's a pretty positive thing. We think we're a Jared Isisigman.
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Speaker 2: I wouldn't say fanboys, but we're believers that he's a
7:36
Speaker 2: good influence for NASA. And that's a kind of a
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Speaker 2: bipartisan comment. I would say, I think. I think I
7:42
Speaker 2: was having a conversation with someone who just shut me
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Speaker 2: down because I happened to say that I thought that
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Speaker 2: Jared Eisigman might be a good NASA director. It's like, oh,
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Speaker 2: was that a political state? I don't know. It's an
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Speaker 2: interesting climate we find ourselves in. I get it, but
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Speaker 2: I do I do believe, and I believe this in
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Speaker 2: a nonpartisan sense. I think there's both Democrats and Republicans
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Speaker 2: who actually believe that Jared Isiacman is a really good
8:08
Speaker 2: pick to be the NASA director. So Jared came in
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Speaker 2: and said, wait a minute, what's the plan you're gonna
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Speaker 2: So we just had a robotic spacecraft go around the
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Speaker 2: Moon in November of twenty twenty two. That was Artemis one.
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Speaker 2: There was the Orion capsule, but nobody was on board.
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Speaker 2: In fact, we didn't even have the life support systems
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Speaker 2: and all the critical human structures in place on that spacecraft.
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Speaker 2: Artemis two, which is the one we're working on right now,
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Speaker 2: and almost launched it actually already in February. It hadn't
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Speaker 2: been for some tanking problems, some fuel problems leaking out
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Speaker 2: of the main tank. They've had to roll that back now,
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Speaker 2: But the point is we were almost ready to launch,
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Speaker 2: that it does have people on board. They would have
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Speaker 2: been and still will be when it finally launches. Read
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Speaker 2: Wiseman Victor Glover, Christina Cook, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut
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Speaker 2: Jeremy Hansen at approximately ten day mission. Because they had
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Speaker 2: to roll the rocket back to do some repairs and
9:06
Speaker 2: some examinations on the fuel containment components, that one won't
9:12
Speaker 2: launch before early April. We know that now, but we're
9:15
Speaker 2: still in the process of doing that. And the plan
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Speaker 2: then was for Artemis III, the next one, try to
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Speaker 2: get it to go up in mid twenty twenty seven,
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Speaker 2: just next year, a little over a year from now,
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Speaker 2: to actually put human beings on the surface of the Moon.
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Speaker 2: Now the problem is we don't have a lander.
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Speaker 5: That is a big problem.
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Speaker 2: So we don't have we can get to we can
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Speaker 2: get to lunar orbit, we don't have the uber to
9:44
Speaker 2: take us down to the surface of the Moon. And yes,
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Speaker 2: SpaceX has been working on their starship vehicle, but it's
9:52
Speaker 2: been well documented that there's been some delays in that
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Speaker 2: program because SpaceX had some kind of mechanical failures. Another
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Speaker 2: thing we've chronicled a lot on this podcast is it's
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Speaker 2: kind of the way SpaceX does things, but they haven't
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Speaker 2: been moving quite as quickly as NASA needs them to
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Speaker 2: move in order to be ready for that architecture to
10:13
Speaker 2: be the landing vehicle to take the astronauts to the
10:17
Speaker 2: surface of the Moon. So Blue Origin was also let
10:21
Speaker 2: back in the game, even though they lost out on
10:24
Speaker 2: the original contract. There was some legal maneuvering and they
10:26
Speaker 2: got put back in the game. And Blue Origin is
10:29
Speaker 2: rapidly trying to make their lunar lander, but it's had
10:33
Speaker 2: no testing either, so neither of these vehicles have actually
10:37
Speaker 2: landed on the Moon yet or even finished their architecture
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Speaker 2: is necessary to get them in a position where they
10:43
Speaker 2: can land on the Moon. So Jared Eisaman has now
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Speaker 2: just come in and said, hey, wait, the original plan,
10:51
Speaker 2: I understand it was aggressive. We were trying to get
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Speaker 2: things done in a short order of time, but we're
10:57
Speaker 2: just not ready. So Artemis IIE is going to be
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Speaker 2: a different kind of demonstration mission, and Artemis three is
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Speaker 2: now going to be a demonstration mission in low Earth
11:07
Speaker 2: orbit again by mid twenty twenty seven to test one
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Speaker 2: or both commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin respectively.
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Speaker 2: So NASA Jared Isiacman effectively putting these subcontractors on notice
11:23
Speaker 2: to say, hey, we need your landers ready to go
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Speaker 2: in one year, and in one year we're going to
11:29
Speaker 2: be doing a test in low Earth orbit of your
11:33
Speaker 2: lander vehicles. The mission will launch crew in the Orion
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Speaker 2: on top of SLS rocket and then they will test
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Speaker 2: the rendezvous and docking capabilities between the Orion space capsule
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Speaker 2: and a commercial spacecraft needed to land astronauts on the Moon.
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Speaker 2: Both providers might actually be involved in this test. Could
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Speaker 2: you imagine the Orion capsule going into Low Earth orbit
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Speaker 2: and then first docking with a SpaceX starship and then
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Speaker 2: undocking and redocking again with a Blue Origin Lander, and
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Speaker 2: just to test the parameters of how all that works.
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Speaker 2: It's according to NASA, and I'm quoting an article from
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Speaker 2: NASA dot gov. This test will take place with one
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Speaker 2: or possibly both providers. So you could have a scenario
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Speaker 2: where the Orion space capsule is docking with both the
12:30
Speaker 2: SpaceX starship and a Blue Origin lunarland Lunar landing vehicle
12:37
Speaker 2: in the same mission, which is unusual. That would certainly
12:40
Speaker 2: be a first. NASA's never really done anything like that before,
12:45
Speaker 2: so that would be unusual. That's Artemis three. Then Artemis
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Speaker 2: four is now projected to be the vehicle that could
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Speaker 2: land astronauts.
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Speaker 4: On the Moon.
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Speaker 5: Before we get to four. I just want to because
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Speaker 5: this is the thing that's a bit absurd, and and
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Speaker 5: I think in a good way, because as you pointed out,
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Speaker 5: this is not typical, uh in any way, but it
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Speaker 5: almost feels like and it's going on. It's just been
13:11
Speaker 5: going on the whole NFL draft combine. That's what it
13:15
Speaker 5: feels like. Right, You're showing off what you got on
13:17
Speaker 5: the field side by side so that they can, you know,
13:21
Speaker 5: the scalps can measure them up and decide which one
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Speaker 5: makes the most sense for you know, whenever the draft
13:26
Speaker 5: comes around.
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Speaker 2: Yes, Artemis three is basically training camp.
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Speaker 4: That's right.
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Speaker 5: That's kind of in a way, it's, you know what,
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Speaker 5: what's your forty time? Show us that that's what we
13:36
Speaker 5: want to know.
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Speaker 2: There's some of that. There's you know, we're gonna let
13:39
Speaker 2: both of these Landers take some snaps.
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Speaker 4: That's just get a general with.
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Speaker 2: The first team offense and we're going to see, you know,
13:45
Speaker 2: how how these Landers resonate with the receivers. You know,
13:48
Speaker 2: we're gonna see how that all goes.
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Speaker 5: And all of those things.
13:52
Speaker 2: The only thing get some looks in. You don't want
13:54
Speaker 2: to get some looks at this talent, you know, before
13:55
Speaker 2: we which.
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Speaker 5: One of you guys is going to step in when
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Speaker 5: we decide we've had enough of Russ Wilson. That's the question.
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Speaker 2: His his SpaceX Russell Wilson.
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Speaker 4: I don't know.
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Speaker 2: They've been the leading they've been the leading architecture so far.
14:12
Speaker 2: But but yet now there's you know, there's a new
14:15
Speaker 2: draft pick, and now we now there's controversy in the
14:17
Speaker 2: quarterback room. We're going to figure out which of these starters,
14:20
Speaker 2: which is which is going to be the starter?
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Speaker 5: You you as a Broncos fan, me as a Giants
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Speaker 5: fan that hits a little close to home. That's the
14:27
Speaker 5: only reason I'm picking on Russell. He seems like a
14:29
Speaker 5: he seems like a swell guy. All right, now on
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Speaker 5: to Artemist four. I'm sorry, I mean.
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Speaker 2: He is a swell guy. But if you can't pick
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Speaker 2: on Russell Wilson in a space podcast, who can you
14:38
Speaker 2: pick on? That's what I'm saying.
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Speaker 5: That's a great question.
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Speaker 2: So so Artemis four is, you know, opening day, and
14:45
Speaker 2: that's a mixed analogy. That's baseball. Artemist four is the
14:48
Speaker 2: first game of the season. Now, Artemist four is the
14:51
Speaker 2: mission now that NASA is looking at to actually land
14:55
Speaker 2: astronauts on the Moon. And you can kind of see
14:57
Speaker 2: their thought process. They're they're saying, do we really want
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Speaker 2: to dock with a lunar landing vehicle for the very
15:05
Speaker 2: first time in orbit around the Moon? I think that
15:11
Speaker 2: was maybe the question is like, first of all, we
15:13
Speaker 2: have a little bit of a quarterback controversy as we're
15:15
Speaker 2: just discussing, we don't know who the starting lunar landing
15:17
Speaker 2: vehicle is going to be. But then the plan for
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Speaker 2: Artemist three had been the very first time the Orion
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Speaker 2: space capsule docks with its lunar landing vehicle would be
15:28
Speaker 2: in orbit around the Moon, which is significantly farther from home,
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Speaker 2: harder to do any kind of a rescue mission, all
15:35
Speaker 2: of those kinds of things, right, So I think Jared
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Speaker 2: Isaacman and the administration of NASA's just said, hey, let's
15:43
Speaker 2: back up just a little bit here. Let's make sure
15:46
Speaker 2: we a have the right commercial landing vehicle and be well,
15:51
Speaker 2: can go ahead and do the docking test in Earth
15:54
Speaker 2: orbit before we go all the way to the Moon.
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Speaker 2: So Artemis four will be the vehicle that finally takes
16:01
Speaker 2: astronauts all the way to the Moon with the purpose
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Speaker 2: of landing on the surface of the Moon, and in
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Speaker 2: this new plan, with a tested lunar landing vehicle at
16:12
Speaker 2: least tested in the sense that we know we can
16:15
Speaker 2: dock Oryan with it successfully and those kinds of things. So,
16:19
Speaker 2: so Artemis four, it's time frame looks like maybe early
16:23
Speaker 2: twenty twenty eight. Obviously, this is if a lot of
16:26
Speaker 2: a lot of dominoes have to fall into place for
16:28
Speaker 2: that to happen, but it could be as early as
16:30
Speaker 2: early twenty twenty eight. It'll be a test target for
16:36
Speaker 2: a lunar landing and after the launch, the crew will
16:40
Speaker 2: transfer from Orion to the commercial lunar Lander one selected
16:44
Speaker 2: from the Artemis three mission, and they will be transported
16:47
Speaker 2: to the Lunar Service and we're going to be testing
16:51
Speaker 2: lander readiness and can that lander, you know, safely carry
16:54
Speaker 2: them down to the service and back up to the
16:56
Speaker 2: Orion spacecraft. We'll be splashing down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
17:00
Speaker 2: Hopefully this will be work. Work will be done between
17:04
Speaker 2: now and this launch of Artemists four to standardize the
17:07
Speaker 2: SLS rocket. There are multiple versions of SLS. Jaredizing has
17:13
Speaker 2: come out and said, look, we just want to deal
17:14
Speaker 2: with one architecture. We want the same. We don't want
17:17
Speaker 2: like a Swiss Army knife of architectures here. We want
17:20
Speaker 2: one architecture. We want to standardize it, and we want
17:23
Speaker 2: to implement that for Artoms four and be ready for that.
17:25
Speaker 2: So with this architecture approach, NASA is assessing alternative options
17:30
Speaker 2: for the second stage of the rocket. They want to
17:33
Speaker 2: lock in on a firm second stage and the intra
17:37
Speaker 2: cryogenic propulsion stage that's the second stage used for the
17:40
Speaker 2: first three missions, will be replaced with a new second
17:43
Speaker 2: stage that's made for that lunar landing, and so all
17:46
Speaker 2: of these things are happening for the Artemis four and
17:49
Speaker 2: then yes, there's an Artemis five. So there's a plan,
17:53
Speaker 2: you plan your work, you work your plan. Right, there's
17:56
Speaker 2: a plan for the fifth Artemis launch, and that fifth
17:59
Speaker 2: Artist launch will be using that standardized configuration of the
18:02
Speaker 2: Sol's rocket, and that will be further explorations of the
18:06
Speaker 2: lunar surface, maybe as early as late twenty twenty eight.
18:11
Speaker 2: And so you know, that's that's laying it down, all
18:13
Speaker 2: of that hopefully resulting in the beginning of construction of
18:17
Speaker 2: a lunar base by the United States are Aerica, maybe
18:20
Speaker 2: as early as the end of twenty twenty eight.
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Speaker 5: And you say, the whole plan, your work, work, you're playing,
18:27
Speaker 5: this strategy laid out now feels and not that it
18:32
Speaker 5: was a true term for it, but it feels a
18:36
Speaker 5: little less fire ready aim than where we were before.
18:39
Speaker 5: And I don't think that's exactly where we were because
18:42
Speaker 5: there was a plan. This just kind of lays out
18:45
Speaker 5: exactly what the expectation is, what the intentions are, and
18:49
Speaker 5: I think it puts a little bit of ease to
18:52
Speaker 5: some of the well are we doing this too fast?
18:55
Speaker 5: And just to point this out, and again we don't
18:58
Speaker 5: do politics here, but it's this isn't the first president
19:02
Speaker 5: who has come into issues with the Moon and had
19:06
Speaker 5: great ambition for it. So it's we're not specifically talking
19:09
Speaker 5: about that as being good or bad. We're just pointing
19:12
Speaker 5: out the fact that we have a president who wanted
19:15
Speaker 5: to see some of these things happen during his term.
19:19
Speaker 5: This still fits into that, like this would still line
19:22
Speaker 5: up with that as far as the intentions of trying
19:25
Speaker 5: to get it done, and you could argue that it's
19:29
Speaker 5: for vanity. You could argue it's for hey, I want
19:31
Speaker 5: to make sure that it gets done. That's the only
19:33
Speaker 5: way that I could make sure it gets done. And
19:35
Speaker 5: we're not really into those waters. It's just a case
19:38
Speaker 5: of the concern was is this going to be ready
19:42
Speaker 5: in the timeframe that they were talking about, you know,
19:45
Speaker 5: boots on the ground with Artemis III versus you know,
19:50
Speaker 5: just trying to get this done in a space race
19:53
Speaker 5: with China. And that's the other part of this obviously,
19:56
Speaker 5: because you know, they would like to start building their
19:59
Speaker 5: Moon base as well, so all of those things come
20:02
Speaker 5: into play with this. This timeframe did not surprise me
20:06
Speaker 5: to see twenty twenty eight being, you know, the end
20:11
Speaker 5: dates for some of these things taking place.
20:14
Speaker 2: You know, so we said this, we don't do politics
20:18
Speaker 2: on the show really just means we don't take sides.
20:21
Speaker 2: We don't ignore the influence of politics on America's space program,
20:25
Speaker 2: because that would be silly. You know. Of course, some
20:28
Speaker 2: of these things are for political reasons. It's just the
20:31
Speaker 2: reality of the environment that we work in. Right, So,
20:35
Speaker 2: those of us who who have either watched the space
20:38
Speaker 2: program or in any way partially affiliated with the space program,
20:42
Speaker 2: we know that politics affects all of these things. So
20:44
Speaker 2: it's unrealistic to say that there's no politics involved. Well,
20:47
Speaker 2: that's just simply not true. So of course there are
20:50
Speaker 2: politics involved, and yes, that may have tried, you know,
20:54
Speaker 2: been a factor in NASA trying to accelerate some of
20:56
Speaker 2: those timelines. I'm thankful that Jared Isiacman is coming in
21:00
Speaker 2: and saying, yeah, I work for a guy who really
21:03
Speaker 2: wants to accelerate these timelines. However, I'm am gonna do
21:07
Speaker 2: things the right way. We're gonna make sure we try
21:09
Speaker 2: to get things done in a safe and orderly manner
21:12
Speaker 2: that makes engineering in logistical sense and is a pro
21:17
Speaker 2: safety measure. One of the things we haven't really talked about,
21:21
Speaker 2: and a lot of the old time NASA guys who
21:23
Speaker 2: were responsible for the Saturn five launches and then also
21:27
Speaker 2: the early Space Shuttle program, they came out and said, hey,
21:29
Speaker 2: you know this sls idea that you have. You're not
21:33
Speaker 2: launching the rocket often enough to make sure it's safe.
21:38
Speaker 2: There's so much time in between the planned rocket launches
21:42
Speaker 2: that every launch is like a new launch, like launching
21:45
Speaker 2: a vehicle for the first time. In other words, the
21:48
Speaker 2: launch cadence is not great enough in order to build
21:53
Speaker 2: the protocols and the muscle memory, so to speak, to
21:58
Speaker 2: make sure that these launches are safe. And so the
22:03
Speaker 2: advice from the old timers was if you would, if
22:06
Speaker 2: you would launch these rockets at a little bit greater frequency,
22:09
Speaker 2: you're going to get better at launching the rockets and
22:12
Speaker 2: all of the protocols that are involved with that, and
22:15
Speaker 2: those measures will help make each launch safer and therefore
22:19
Speaker 2: safer for the astronauts. So built into this is a
22:22
Speaker 2: higher launch cadence which I haven't seen that discussed anywhere,
22:27
Speaker 2: certainly not in this article from NASA, But I do
22:29
Speaker 2: know just from my prior reading, that's that's at least
22:33
Speaker 2: one of the concerns from some of the shall we say,
22:36
Speaker 2: gray haired advisors to the Space program.
22:39
Speaker 5: More made of Stars right after this. So ultimately, a
23:04
Speaker 5: base on the Moon is something that we would like
23:06
Speaker 5: to see happen, and you and I especially excited about
23:09
Speaker 5: it because we just like talking about it. But one
23:12
Speaker 5: of the things that you need if you're gonna start
23:14
Speaker 5: colonizing the Moon or Mars or wherever, is oxygen. That's
23:19
Speaker 5: kind of important. It's kind of a big deal if
23:22
Speaker 5: you're planning to have people live for long periods of
23:26
Speaker 5: time on the lunar surface.
23:29
Speaker 2: You know, oxygen. If you just pause for a moment
23:33
Speaker 2: and just remember any of your middle grade sciences, you're
23:37
Speaker 2: probably keenly aware that without oxygen it's very hard to
23:41
Speaker 2: manufacture twinkies, which is gonna be one of the essential
23:44
Speaker 2: functions of a new I mean, if you're going to
23:47
Speaker 2: be on a moon base, how could you do that
23:48
Speaker 2: without some kind of snackcake option. I just think it's
23:53
Speaker 2: very difficult to imagine life without that. So so yes,
23:56
Speaker 2: that's gonna be one of the options. But you might
23:58
Speaker 2: also want to breathe you're there, and you know, possibly
24:02
Speaker 2: have water to drink, and also a rocket fuel, all
24:06
Speaker 2: three of which in addition to you know, your favorite
24:09
Speaker 2: snack cake, which might be Twinkie.
24:12
Speaker 5: It might also be Zingers, it could be.
24:14
Speaker 2: Singers, you can imagine.
24:15
Speaker 5: I mean, I think I'm looking at a guy that
24:17
Speaker 5: I know like Zinger.
24:20
Speaker 2: I don't even know if the Twinkie is still being manufactured.
24:23
Speaker 2: Probably is, but it is some sort of snack cake.
24:27
Speaker 2: You're going to have to have it, whatever that favorite is.
24:29
Speaker 2: But you probably also need to breathe, have water, and
24:31
Speaker 2: have rocket fuel, all three of which require oxygen as well.
24:35
Speaker 2: So therefore, therefore you're probably going to want to have
24:39
Speaker 2: some kind of mechanism with you to generate oxygen on
24:44
Speaker 2: the surface of the Moon for a long term moon
24:47
Speaker 2: base without having to bring all of that oxygen from
24:51
Speaker 2: the blue marble of the Earth, because that's a payload,
24:56
Speaker 2: and we want to try to restrict payloads to the Moon,
24:59
Speaker 2: because anything we can do in C two or in
25:03
Speaker 2: place on the surface of the Moon lowers the amount
25:06
Speaker 2: of stuff that we have to bring from the Earth,
25:08
Speaker 2: and all of that stuff that we have to bring
25:09
Speaker 2: from the Earth. We want that to be the most critical,
25:12
Speaker 2: most important items that we simply cannot manufacture on the Moon.
25:16
Speaker 2: All right, So again from NASA dot Gov, there's a
25:21
Speaker 2: group that has begun the testing of a new oxygen
25:28
Speaker 2: generation mechanism that just uses sunlight and lunar soil. This
25:32
Speaker 2: is part of NASA's Game Changing Development Program. That's actually
25:36
Speaker 2: the name of the program. The program's actual name is
25:39
Speaker 2: NASA's Game Changing Development Program. And what they've offered is
25:43
Speaker 2: for various research groups to just come out and demonstrate
25:47
Speaker 2: new technologies that might make inhabiting the Moon and developing
25:51
Speaker 2: a moon base simpler. And one of those things is
25:54
Speaker 2: if you can generate important materials like oxygen from the
25:58
Speaker 2: already existing lunar regolith or things you already find on
26:02
Speaker 2: the Moon, it's gonna be a lot easier. So there
26:04
Speaker 2: are groups that NASA that are now testing what's called
26:07
Speaker 2: the carbo Thermal Reduction Demonstration Project, or NASA loves its
26:14
Speaker 2: acronyms card lower case a capital CRD card carbo Thermal
26:23
Speaker 2: Reduction Demonstration Project. So what this does is it is
26:26
Speaker 2: a set of solar concentrators, which are basically big curved
26:30
Speaker 2: mirrors that concentrate sunlight onto the lunar regolith in a
26:36
Speaker 2: sample container that can just scoop up dirt. Have these
26:40
Speaker 2: big solar concentrators that vaporize that lunar soil, that lunar regolith,
26:46
Speaker 2: and from that they can produce various gases which can
26:51
Speaker 2: then be trapped. One of those is carbon monoxide. Okay,
26:54
Speaker 2: well that's that's not oxygen, yes, but carbon monoxide does
26:59
Speaker 2: have oxygen in it. So you use the big mirror
27:02
Speaker 2: to generate carbon monoxide, and then you take that carbon
27:05
Speaker 2: monoxide and chemically break it down into carbon and oxygen,
27:10
Speaker 2: and therefore you're able to isolate the oxygen that you
27:13
Speaker 2: need for breathing, drinking, making rock and fuel and your
27:19
Speaker 2: favorite snack cake. So this could help with that can
27:23
Speaker 2: help significantly reduce the cost and complexity of sustaining a
27:26
Speaker 2: long term human lunar presence on the Moon surface. Right,
27:30
Speaker 2: So that's what the whole demonstration is about. Again, you
27:34
Speaker 2: can read about this on NASA dot gov. They have
27:36
Speaker 2: a great article called Harnessing the Sun to extract oxygen
27:40
Speaker 2: on the Moon.
27:42
Speaker 5: So we're talking about a possible Moon base. This would
27:47
Speaker 5: also be relevant for something on Mars as far as
27:50
Speaker 5: the base goes there. So let's talk about Mars and
27:55
Speaker 5: Mars dirt because some kind of new science concerning Mars
28:00
Speaker 5: dirt could be really important.
28:04
Speaker 2: So all of the Artemis program, let's keep this in perspective.
28:08
Speaker 2: Yes we want to go back to the Moon. Yes
28:11
Speaker 2: we want to build a moon base, but the entire
28:14
Speaker 2: Artemis program is to demonstrate and develop the kinds of
28:19
Speaker 2: technologies that we need to put a human presence on Mars.
28:25
Speaker 2: There's a little bit of that sense of been there,
28:27
Speaker 2: done that with the Moon because of Apollo. We're really
28:31
Speaker 2: trying to get human beings to Mars. But we want
28:33
Speaker 2: to get good at all the things necessary to get
28:36
Speaker 2: human beings safely to Mars working on the Moon. So
28:40
Speaker 2: that's been the other stories up till now. But a
28:44
Speaker 2: serious future plan for human space exploration, particularly here in
28:49
Speaker 2: the United States, is to get human beings to the
28:53
Speaker 2: service of Mars now. As a part of all of that,
28:56
Speaker 2: or even just sending up robotic spacecraft to the US
29:00
Speaker 2: of Mars. You have to be conscious of this fact.
29:07
Speaker 2: There's a possibility of inadvertently sending human life. Sorry I
29:13
Speaker 2: don't mean human life, I mean Earth life to the
29:16
Speaker 2: surface of Mars with human beings.
29:18
Speaker 5: There you go.
29:20
Speaker 2: You don't want to infect the Martian surface with microbes
29:26
Speaker 2: from the Earth when you're trying to find microbes on Mars. Right,
29:31
Speaker 2: are there life forms in the Martian dirt? Hey, look
29:34
Speaker 2: we found life forms. Oh wait, those are Earth life forms.
29:38
Speaker 4: Right.
29:38
Speaker 2: So there's a process called the biomitigation of spacecraft where
29:45
Speaker 2: you are trying to exterminate effectively any Earth life on
29:50
Speaker 2: a spacecraft before it goes off and lands somewhere like Mars.
29:55
Speaker 2: That's a process that we want to get better at,
29:56
Speaker 2: but we're certainly not perfect at that yet, so we
29:59
Speaker 2: can't come completely rely on our current ability to get
30:04
Speaker 2: rid of all life forms. Okay, So a new study
30:08
Speaker 2: article from space dot com, by the way, tells us
30:11
Speaker 2: that Mars dirt could actually help fight off a microbial
30:15
Speaker 2: invasion from the Earth. The dirt in Mars itself might
30:21
Speaker 2: actually help protect from alien invaders. And in the space
30:26
Speaker 2: dot com article, they do parken back to the idea
30:28
Speaker 2: of the War of the Worlds where the Martians landed
30:32
Speaker 2: and were just kicking the butts of our military and
30:37
Speaker 2: or Earth defenses were no match for these Martian invaders. However,
30:41
Speaker 2: the Martians somehow didn't think about this problem of microbial
30:43
Speaker 2: life from Earth infecting them, and so they all tied off.
30:47
Speaker 2: And that's kind of the sorry if it's a spoiler alert,
30:50
Speaker 2: it was written in the eighteen hundreds already, haven't gotten
30:52
Speaker 2: around to that one yet, but that's kind of how
30:54
Speaker 2: the end of that story goes. So the nature of
30:58
Speaker 2: this story is there may be chemicals in Martian regulal
31:03
Speaker 2: eth or soil that could help to fend off Earth life,
31:09
Speaker 2: which is kind of interesting. So the scientists on the
31:13
Speaker 2: study are led by someone named Korean Bakerman's from Penn
31:18
Speaker 2: State University, and they're exposing tartar grades, which are these
31:22
Speaker 2: little water bears microbial life forms. They're like a half
31:27
Speaker 2: a millimeter in length. They're exposing them to the simulants
31:31
Speaker 2: of Martian regal eth. And this is material that's made
31:34
Speaker 2: to be as chemically alike Martian soil as we possibly can't. Well,
31:39
Speaker 2: how do we know what Martian soil is made out of? Well,
31:42
Speaker 2: because we do actually have robots that are already there
31:44
Speaker 2: and doing some chemical testing. Right, So the Martian soil
31:48
Speaker 2: is dead, it's inorganic, but it seems to have some
31:52
Speaker 2: kind of a chemical that's water soluble in it. And
31:57
Speaker 2: when we create this really near simulant of this Martian
32:02
Speaker 2: soil based on the chemistry from the rovers that are
32:04
Speaker 2: driving around up there. The stuff is called MGS one.
32:08
Speaker 2: It's designed to mimic the general properties of the Martian
32:11
Speaker 2: regulath chemically speaking and structurally speaking. It turns out that
32:16
Speaker 2: we put tartar grades in that stuff and they die
32:18
Speaker 2: pretty quickly. They don't die, they go into a state
32:21
Speaker 2: of hibernation, so they can automatically detect these tartar grades,
32:29
Speaker 2: these little water bears that there's something in that soil
32:31
Speaker 2: that might be detrimental to them. So their little process
32:35
Speaker 2: is just shut down and they again, because their tartar
32:38
Speaker 2: grades have this ability to just go into a stasis
32:41
Speaker 2: type mode, they just basically go to sleep. And so
32:46
Speaker 2: that's not good because they can just stay in that
32:48
Speaker 2: dormant state almost perpetually, which means they're not living, they're
32:54
Speaker 2: not interacting with the soil. They're not helping convert the
32:57
Speaker 2: soil to something that's maybe more friendly for plants, right,
33:02
Speaker 2: and so it's just assumed that there's something in this. Now.
33:04
Speaker 2: The scientist on the study did something else that's interesting.
33:07
Speaker 2: They took this MGS one lunar arm sorry martian simulant,
33:12
Speaker 2: and they washed it with water. They bathe the stuff
33:16
Speaker 2: in water, and so all the water soluble stuff was
33:18
Speaker 2: affected by that, and then they put the tartar grades
33:21
Speaker 2: back in and after a good washing, and then suddenly
33:24
Speaker 2: the tartar grades were a lot less likely to go
33:27
Speaker 2: into the dormant state, which means it was a lot
33:30
Speaker 2: friendlier for them to live in a normal mode.
33:36
Speaker 5: It's pretty fascinating stuff. And when we talk about some
33:39
Speaker 5: of the science that goes on on these missions, it's science.
33:45
Speaker 5: I mean, it's really digging, really digging into the soil, right.
33:49
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I mean, so imagine the movie The Martian yep.
33:53
Speaker 2: And if you suddenly were needing to grow potatoes in
33:56
Speaker 2: Mars dirt and you have plenty of you know, your
34:00
Speaker 2: self generating fertile fertilizer, but there was some secret chemical
34:04
Speaker 2: in the Mars dirt that kept killing your potato plants,
34:07
Speaker 2: you would need to know that ahead of time, right,
34:09
Speaker 2: And so that's basically what the study is saying. There's
34:12
Speaker 2: something in the chemistry of the MGS one simulant which
34:18
Speaker 2: is again as chemically similar as we know, to make
34:21
Speaker 2: this substance to the actual Mars soil that's causing the
34:24
Speaker 2: tartar grates to shut down and very well might kill
34:28
Speaker 2: plants that you were trying to grow in this Martian
34:29
Speaker 2: soil as well. Therefore, understanding what that apparently water soluble
34:36
Speaker 2: chemical is, it's going to be really important for us
34:39
Speaker 2: to be able to go to Mars and try to
34:41
Speaker 2: build any kind of Martian colony one day. So this
34:44
Speaker 2: is kind of a first step into helping us understand
34:48
Speaker 2: the Martian chemistry in the soil and whether or not
34:51
Speaker 2: we can generate life forms growing in that soil. Space
34:55
Speaker 2: dot Com great article on Mars soils stars.
35:01
Speaker 5: Right after this science, let's talk about STEM Day.
35:25
Speaker 2: Let's do STEM Day's fund here the Coca Cola Space
35:28
Speaker 2: Science Center. On Saturday, March the fourteenth, we're going to
35:31
Speaker 2: be having something called Georgia stem Day. It's not just
35:35
Speaker 2: our STEM Day, It's part of an effort that is
35:38
Speaker 2: statewide sponsored by the Georgia Department of Education to introduce
35:42
Speaker 2: middle school and high school students to STEM careers and
35:46
Speaker 2: how they can access them and what kind of education
35:48
Speaker 2: they need in order to go off and pursue science, technology, engineering, mathematics.
35:54
Speaker 2: And so we're gonna have a lot of great guests
35:56
Speaker 2: here at the Space Science Center that day, including a
36:00
Speaker 2: guests from our friends at smurf at west Rock, which
36:02
Speaker 2: is the paper company that has been a very generous
36:04
Speaker 2: sponsor of our museum. So Smurfit west Rock is going
36:08
Speaker 2: to be talking about how to get into the paper industry.
36:11
Speaker 2: Also here is going to be Kia Manufacturers as Kia Motors,
36:15
Speaker 2: and they're going to have representatives down and if you
36:17
Speaker 2: want to investigate a future career in working with the
36:21
Speaker 2: brilliant automation that takes place to build Kia automobiles very
36:26
Speaker 2: short distance away from our Space Science Center, they're going
36:28
Speaker 2: to be here to talk to you about that. We
36:30
Speaker 2: also have our friends from Pratt Whitney engineers who help
36:33
Speaker 2: design and build components for jet engines as well as
36:37
Speaker 2: repair massive jet engines from aircraft that have been out
36:41
Speaker 2: in service for a while. Their plant is right here
36:43
Speaker 2: in town, and they will be here talking about how
36:46
Speaker 2: students can access great careers with Pratt Whitney. In addition
36:49
Speaker 2: to these corporate people. Oh, by the way, Lego Corporate
36:53
Speaker 2: is also going to be here talking about how to
36:54
Speaker 2: have a career in Lego. Now that sounds like fun,
36:57
Speaker 2: doesn't it. I wouldn't mind being a Lego engine here myself.
37:01
Speaker 2: So all of those companies will be here. In addition,
37:03
Speaker 2: we'll have lots of departments from the Columbus State University faculty,
37:07
Speaker 2: both in Earth and space sciences, also in education, also
37:11
Speaker 2: in computer science, across the spectrum, great STEM degree programs
37:16
Speaker 2: here at the university, and you can come down and
37:18
Speaker 2: talk to all of those professionals about your dreams of
37:21
Speaker 2: becoming a STEM career professional, or your children or your
37:26
Speaker 2: grandchildren doing similar. And so I would say this one
37:29
Speaker 2: great booth that's going to be here specifically for parents
37:33
Speaker 2: of high school students. It's a how to go to
37:35
Speaker 2: college booth, and representatives from our admissions team here at
37:39
Speaker 2: Columbus State University will be on hand to talk to
37:42
Speaker 2: students about the general process of what they need to
37:44
Speaker 2: do to get ready to go to college and get
37:46
Speaker 2: all the paperwork in, apply for scholarships, etc. So all
37:50
Speaker 2: of this stuff happening on March fourteenth. It is free
37:53
Speaker 2: of charge. Friends, It's sponsored by the Georgia Department of Education,
37:57
Speaker 2: so that you can come for free the kids have them.
38:01
Speaker 2: Come talk to these brilliant professionals. Find a pathway into
38:04
Speaker 2: a STEM career where you can also make a lot
38:07
Speaker 2: of money, but you can have a great time doing science, technology,
38:11
Speaker 2: engineering and math as your future career. March fourteenth, here
38:16
Speaker 2: at Coca Cola Space Science Center, Columbus State University.
38:19
Speaker 5: Sean and I thank you for listening, and we will
38:21
Speaker 5: do this again next week.
38:22
Speaker 3: Plan it's nice.
38:30
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