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Artemis II: Homeward Bound and The Lost Mars Mission · Space News Today

0:00
Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
0:03
I'm Anna.
0:04
>> And I'm Avery. It is Wednesday, April
0:07
8th, 2026. And what a week it has been.
0:10
>> We are deep into what might be the most
0:13
extraordinary few days in human space
0:15
flight since 1972.
0:18
Artemis 2 is heading home and we are
0:21
going to walk you through exactly where
0:23
the crew is right now. What happened on
0:25
flight day 7 and what to expect as they
0:28
come screaming back through the
0:29
atmosphere on Friday.
0:31
>> Screaming is right. We are talking
0:34
25,000 mph, the fastest crude re-entry
0:38
in history. But more on that in a
0:40
moment. We have also got a cargo launch
0:43
delay that has created one of the most
0:45
beautifully poetic scheduling
0:47
coincidences we have ever seen in space
0:49
flight. Some planet shaking new science
0:52
about how Earth actually formed. Fresh
0:55
data from an alien comet courtesy of a
0:57
spacecraft designed for Jupiter's moons.
1:00
>> A new comet for sky watchers to get
1:02
excited about after last week's
1:04
spectacular disappointment.
1:06
>> And then to close the show today,
1:08
something a little different. A mystery.
1:11
A space mystery that is 30 years old and
1:14
has never been solved.
1:16
>> I have been looking forward to this one
1:18
all day. I won't lie.
1:19
>> So have I. Let's get into it. This is
1:22
Astronomy Daily Season 5 episode 84.
1:26
>> Right. So let's set the scene. Artemis 2
1:29
launched on April 1st. Yes, April Fool's
1:32
Day. And no, it was not a joke. And the
1:35
crew of four have already done the most
1:37
extraordinary thing. On Monday, flight
1:40
day six, they flew around the far side
1:42
of the moon. They set a new record for
1:44
the furthest humans have ever been,
1:47
252,756
1:50
miles. Nobody in human history has ever
1:54
been that far.
1:55
>> And flight day 7, which was yesterday,
1:57
Tuesday, was the day after all that
2:00
drama, the science debrief day,
2:02
>> the comedown day.
2:04
>> Well, sort of. They woke up to Tokyo
2:07
Drifting by Glass Animals and Denzel
2:09
Curry. And I genuinely love whoever
2:12
selects these wakeup songs is having an
2:14
absolute blast.
2:15
>> The playlist creation on Artemis 2 has
2:18
been exceptional. Somebody at NASA is
2:21
doing their best work.
2:22
>> They woke up 36,000 m from the moon,
2:26
236,000 m from Earth. And the big item
2:29
on the agenda was a 15minute audio call
2:32
ship to ship with the crew aboard the
2:35
International Space Station.
2:37
>> So you have four astronauts who have
2:39
just been further from Earth than any
2:41
human in over 50 years calling up the
2:44
International Space Station, which from
2:46
where Orion was sitting must have felt
2:48
practically next door,
2:50
>> right? Relatively speaking. They spoke
2:52
with NASA astronauts Jessica Mir, Jack
2:55
Hathaway, Chris Williams, and ESA's
2:58
Sophie Adonaut. Just imagine that
3:00
conversation. So, how was the moon? You
3:03
know, bit far.
3:04
>> And after that, the science debrief. The
3:07
Aremis 2 lunar science team had a full
3:09
debrief session with the crew to capture
3:12
everything they observed during the
3:13
flyby while the memories were still
3:15
sharp,
3:16
>> which makes complete sense, right? These
3:18
four people have just seen parts of the
3:21
moon. No human eye has ever seen
3:23
directly. The far side craters like
3:26
Vavalov and the oriental basin, an
3:29
ancient lava field on the border of the
3:31
moon's near and far side that's almost
3:33
impossible to see from Earth. You want
3:36
those impressions captured immediately.
3:39
>> And then in the evening at about 900
3:41
p.m. Eastern, Orion fired the first of
3:43
three trajectory correction burns to
3:45
begin fine-tuning the return path to
3:48
Earth. Though we are officially in the
3:50
home stretch and flight day 8, which is
3:53
today, the crew has two key tasks.
3:56
First, a radiation shelter construction
3:59
demonstration,
4:00
>> which sounds alarming, but is actually a
4:02
planned drill. They practice assembling
4:04
a makeshift radiation shelter inside
4:06
Orion using available materials in case
4:09
of a solar event during a deep space
4:12
mission. Exactly the kind of emergency
4:14
preparedness you need locked in before
4:16
Artemis 3 heads to the lunar surface.
4:19
>> And second, manual piloting tests. The
4:22
crew gets to handfly Orion directly,
4:26
which given that computers handle
4:28
basically everything on this mission,
4:30
must feel a bit like being handed the
4:32
wheel.
4:32
>> And then Friday, April 10th, splashdown.
4:36
>> Flight day 10. Orion re-enters the
4:39
atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour.
4:42
That is the fastest crude re-entry ever
4:45
attempted. The heat shield, which caused
4:48
so much concern and engineering work
4:50
before this mission, will be put to its
4:52
ultimate test.
4:53
>> And collecting data from that re-entry
4:55
is actually one of the core mission
4:57
objectives. So NASA will be watching
4:59
those heat shield readings very closely.
5:02
Splashdown is scheduled for about 8:00
5:04
p.m. Eastern off the coast of San Diego.
5:07
The USS John P. Murtha, a Navy
5:10
amphibious transport dock ship, will be
5:12
waiting. The crew will be recovered by
5:14
helicopter, taken aboard for medical
5:16
evaluation, then flown back to Houston.
5:19
>> And that will be it. The first time
5:21
humans have returned from beyond Earth
5:23
orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
5:27
Mission complete. But right now, Reed
5:30
Weisman, Victor Glover, Christina Cotch,
5:33
and Jeremy Hansen are heading home, and
5:35
we could not be more excited for them.
5:38
>> All right, from the crew heading back to
5:39
Earth to a cargo ship heading up to the
5:42
space station with a slight detour
5:44
through the weather forecast.
5:45
>> Yes. So, as we reported yesterday,
5:48
Northrup Grumman's Signis CRS24 mission
5:52
was supposed to launch today, Wednesday
5:54
morning, from Cape Canaveral on SpaceX
5:56
Falcon 9, carrying about 11,000 lbs of
6:00
cargo to the International Space
6:01
Station.
6:02
>> But the weather at Space Launch Complex
6:04
40 had other ideas and teams have pushed
6:07
a launch to Friday, April 10th,
6:09
targeting 8:03 in the morning Eastern.
6:12
Backup opportunity on Saturday the 11th
6:14
if needed. Now, here is why this matters
6:17
beyond just a weather delay. Friday,
6:20
April 10th is also the day Artemis 2
6:22
splashdowns.
6:24
>> So, on the same day, four astronauts
6:26
return from the moon, the furthest
6:28
humans have been from Earth in over 50
6:30
years. A fresh cargo ship launches
6:33
towards the space station
6:34
simultaneously.
6:36
>> Cape Canaveral is going to be having
6:37
quite a Friday. The spacecraft itself is
6:40
the Signis XL, the larger configuration
6:43
carrying about 11,000 lbs of pressurized
6:46
cargo. Northrup Grumman has named this
6:48
one the SS Steven R Nagel in honor of
6:51
the NASA astronaut who flew four shuttle
6:53
missions and logged over 720 hours in
6:56
space.
6:57
>> Beautiful tradition naming these cargo
6:59
ships and the science aboard CRS24 is
7:02
genuinely interesting. There's a new
7:04
module for the cold atom lab on the
7:06
station, NASA's quantum science facility
7:09
to help investigate dark matter and
7:11
potentially improve computing
7:13
technology. There's also hardware to
7:15
produce greater numbers of therapeutic
7:17
stem cells for blood diseases and
7:19
cancer, model organisms for a gut
7:22
microbiome study, and a receiver to
7:24
improve space weather models that
7:26
protect GPS and radar infrastructure.
7:28
>> Though, it's not just food and
7:30
equipment. This is a proper science
7:32
delivery. Once it arrives, Signis
7:35
doesn't dock automatically the way
7:36
Dragon does. Astronauts Chris Williams
7:39
and Jack Hathaway will use the Canid Arm
7:41
2 robotic arm to grab it and bring it
7:43
in. They've been practicing. There was a
7:46
report last week of them running
7:47
simulations together in the Cuba.
7:49
>> And Signis is scheduled to stay at the
7:52
station until October before undocking
7:54
with several thousand pounds of trash
7:56
and burning up on re-entry. A rather
7:59
unglamorous end, but a useful one.
8:02
>> Weather permitting, Friday should be
8:04
quite the day.
8:05
>> Okay, story three. And this one is a
8:08
genuine rewrite of something we thought
8:11
we understood.
8:12
>> Where did Earth come from? We know the
8:14
broad answer. 4 1/2 billion years ago, a
8:17
cloud of gas and dust collapsed, the sun
8:20
formed, and the leftover material
8:22
clumped into planets. But where exactly
8:25
did the specific material that became
8:27
Earth come from?
8:29
>> For decades, the accepted model was that
8:31
Earth got a significant chunk of its
8:33
building material from the outer solar
8:35
system from beyond Jupiter. Estimates
8:38
ranged from 6% to as much as 40% of
8:42
Earth's mass. And the reason this
8:44
mattered is water. Scientists needed
8:46
that outer solar system contribution to
8:48
explain where Earth's oceans came from
8:51
because the inner solar system was
8:52
thought to be too dry. But a new study
8:55
from ETH Zurich published in the journal
8:57
Nature Astronomy has just turned that on
9:00
its head. Planetary scientists Paulo
9:03
Sosi and Dan Bower analyze isotopic
9:06
ratios of meteorites from across the
9:08
solar system and compare them to Earth's
9:11
composition. Their conclusion, Earth
9:13
formed almost entirely from inner solar
9:16
system material. The outer solar system
9:19
contribution less than 2% and possibly
9:22
nothing at all.
9:24
>> Now, isotopes are essentially atomic
9:26
fingerprints. Different regions of the
9:28
solar system produce slightly different
9:31
ratios of the same elements, and you can
9:33
use those signatures to trace where
9:35
material originated. Previous studies
9:38
mostly looked at one or two isotopic
9:40
systems. Saui and Bower looked at 10
9:44
>> 10 different isotopic systems analyzed
9:46
with statistical methods rarely used in
9:49
geocchemistry. And when you look at all
9:51
10 together, the picture is unambiguous.
9:55
Earth is built of non-carbonacious
9:57
material, inner solar system stuff
9:59
through and through.
10:01
>> Which immediately raises an enormous
10:03
question. If Earth didn't get its water
10:06
from the outer solar system, from comets
10:08
and water-rich asteroids drifting
10:10
inward, where did the water come from?
10:13
>> And the answer, according to this study,
10:15
is it was already here. Water and
10:18
volatile elements must have been present
10:20
in the inner solar system from the very
10:22
beginning. We just didn't realize it.
10:24
>> And why was so little outer solar system
10:27
material reaching Earth in the first
10:29
place? Jupiter. Jupiter formed extremely
10:32
quickly and grew enormous and its
10:35
gravity carved a gap in the young
10:37
protolanetary disc, essentially a
10:39
barrier between the inner and outer
10:41
solar system. This study suggests that
10:44
barrier was almost completely
10:46
impermeable. Almost nothing got through.
10:49
>> Jupiter, the bouncer of the solar
10:51
system. Sorry, outer solar system
10:53
material. Not tonight. One of the
10:56
researchers, Dan Bower, said, "We were
10:58
truly astonished to find that Earth is
11:01
composed entirely from inner solar
11:03
system material, distinct from any
11:05
combination of existing meteorites. Even
11:08
they didn't expect this result.
11:10
>> The implications are genuinely big. If
11:13
water was already present in the inner
11:15
solar system, that changes how we think
11:17
about the conditions that made life
11:19
possible here. And it has implications
11:21
for other planetary systems. Rocky
11:24
planets around sunlike stars might be
11:26
wetter than we assumed.
11:28
>> It's the kind of result that makes you
11:29
look at the ground beneath your feet
11:31
differently. This material formed
11:34
locally billions of years ago without
11:36
much help from the wider solar system.
11:38
Jupiter kept the neighborhood tidy.
11:41
>> And Earth's water was here from the
11:43
start, which is kind of beautiful,
11:45
actually. digging with space science.
11:48
And this one involves an alien comet, a
11:50
spacecraft on its way to Jupiter's
11:52
moons, and an instrument that was never
11:54
designed to do what it ended up doing.
11:57
>> We have followed 3i ATLS closely on this
11:59
show. Quick catch up. 3EA ATLS is an
12:02
interstellar comet, only the third
12:05
object ever confirmed to have entered
12:06
our solar system from interstellar
12:08
space. Discovered in July 2025, reached
12:12
its closest approach to the sun on
12:14
October 29th. And when I say it was
12:16
moving fast, 250,000
12:19
km per hour, nothing that formed in our
12:23
solar system moves like that.
12:24
>> It is genuinely a visitor from another
12:27
star system. We have no idea which one.
12:30
>> In November 2025, issa's Juice
12:32
spacecraft, the Jupiter Icy Moons
12:34
Explorer, currently on route to Jupiter,
12:37
was in a fortunate position to observe
12:39
3IIA ATLS from deep space just 4 days
12:42
after perihelion. The observations were
12:44
difficult. It took until February 2026
12:47
for the data to reach Earth.
12:49
>> And issa has now published the findings.
12:52
And the headline number is
12:53
extraordinary. Juice's Magis
12:55
spectrometer detected 2,000 kg of water
12:59
vapor being expelled by 3II ATLS every
13:02
single second.
13:04
>> 2,000 kg per second. To give you a sense
13:08
of scale, that is the equivalent of
13:10
approximately 70 Olympic swimming pools
13:13
of water every single day, just
13:15
evaporating off the surface of this
13:17
comet into space,
13:18
>> which tells you this is a very active
13:20
comet. Water rich, at least on the
13:22
surface. Though, there's an interesting
13:24
wrinkle. Its carbon dioxide to water
13:26
ratio is higher than you'd typically
13:28
expect from a solar system comet, which
13:31
either means the nucleus is genuinely
13:33
CO2 rich or there's a thick insulating
13:35
crust hiding ice underneath.
13:37
>> Neither of which we can determine from
13:39
here. 3iLS has now passed Jupiter and is
13:43
heading out of the solar system. It will
13:45
never return.
13:46
>> And here's the part I find most
13:48
extraordinary.
13:49
navigation camera designed for
13:51
navigating near Jupiter's moons, looking
13:53
at surfaces a few hundred km below also
13:56
contributed to the science. It provided
13:58
a unique vantage point from deep space
14:00
that helped issa's planetary defense
14:02
team refined a comet's orbital path to
14:05
10 times better accuracy than earthbased
14:07
observations alone could achieve.
14:09
>> An instrument designed for one job,
14:11
unexpectedly doing something completely
14:14
different and doing it brilliantly. That
14:16
is science at its best. What I keep
14:19
coming back to is the age of 3 IATLS.
14:22
Based on its trajectory, this comet may
14:24
be billions of years older than the
14:25
solar system itself. It's not just from
14:28
another star. It may be older than our
14:30
sun. It has been traveling through
14:32
interstellar space for longer than Earth
14:34
has existed. And it spent about a year
14:36
passing through our backyard. And we
14:38
watched it as carefully as we could. And
14:41
now it's gone. Everything we will ever
14:44
know about 3i ATLS, we know already.
14:47
everything we will ever know. I love
14:49
that and find it completely haunting in
14:52
equal measure. Right after last week's
14:54
heartbreak with comet maps, the sunrazer
14:57
that did not survive its close pass with
14:58
the sun, which we covered in yesterday's
15:00
episode, the good news is that April is
15:03
not done with comets.
15:04
>> Not even close. Comet C 2025 R3
15:08
discovered by the Pan Stars survey is
15:10
now the prime target for April sky
15:12
watching. And it's looking genuinely
15:14
promising. Where maps was unpredictable
15:17
and dramatic, a cret sungrazer diving to
15:19
within a 100,000 miles of the sun's
15:21
surface, pan stars is a more
15:23
conventional comment. Predictable orbit,
15:26
manageable approach, the reliable act
15:28
that shows up when the headliner
15:29
cancels.
15:30
>> And its timing is good. Perihelion,
15:33
closest approach to the sun is around
15:35
April 20th. Closest approach to Earth is
15:38
April 27th when it comes within about 44
15:41
million miles of us. At peak brightness,
15:43
it's expected to reach approximately
15:46
magnitude 8.
15:47
>> Now, magnitude 8 means you will not see
15:49
it with the naked eye under normal
15:51
skies, but binoculars will absolutely do
15:53
the job. Any small telescope will give
15:55
you a lovely view. You're looking for a
15:58
fuzzy smudge, possibly with a faint tail
16:00
extending away from the sun.
16:02
>> For northern hemisphere listeners, look
16:05
east in the pre-dawn sky from midappril
16:08
through the end of the month. It will be
16:10
in the constellations Pegasus and
16:12
Pisces. A good star app, Delarium, Sky
16:16
Safari, Starwalk 2, will give you exact
16:19
positioning.
16:20
>> And for our listeners in Australia and
16:22
New Zealand, your window is actually in
16:25
early May in the evening sky. Look west
16:28
after sunset. Dark skies will
16:30
significantly help. Get away from sigy
16:33
lights if you can.
16:34
>> Comet brightness predictions can shift.
16:37
They famously don't always behave. So
16:40
keep checking sky and telescope or
16:42
universe today as we get closer to
16:44
perihelion. But right now the forecast
16:47
looks encouraging.
16:48
>> Think of it as the universe offering a
16:51
constellation prize after maps. It's a
16:53
perfectly lovely comet and it deserves
16:55
our attention.
16:56
>> One comet destroyed, one comet incoming.
17:00
April is very on brand for the solar
17:02
system. All right, story six. And today
17:06
we're doing something a little different
17:07
to close the show.
17:09
>> We are going back 30 years back to one
17:12
of the strangest and most overlooked
17:14
stories in the history of space
17:16
exploration. A mission that was built
17:18
with extraordinary ambition, launched
17:21
into tragedy, and then vanished. And
17:24
nobody has ever found it.
17:26
>> This is the story of Mars 96.
17:29
>> Let's set the scene. It's 1996. The Cold
17:33
War has been over for 5 years. Russia
17:36
and the United States are for the first
17:38
time in decades not rivals in space.
17:41
They're partners. Shuttlemeir is
17:43
underway. The International Space
17:45
Station is being designed. There is
17:47
genuine optimism about what a postcold
17:50
war space age could look like. And in
17:52
that spirit of optimism, an
17:54
extraordinary mission is being
17:56
assembled. Russia is leading it, but it
17:59
is genuinely multinational. science
18:01
payloads from Germany, France, Italy,
18:04
Poland, Spain, Belgium, Finland,
18:08
Austria, and the United States. NASA's
18:11
Jet Propulsion Lab contributing two
18:13
instruments. This is what cooperation
18:16
looks like when people choose it.
18:18
>> The spacecraft itself is remarkable. At
18:21
over 6,500 kg, it is the largest
18:24
interplanetary spacecraft humans had
18:27
ever launched. more than 40 science
18:29
instruments aboard and its ambition is
18:32
staggering. It would study Mars
18:34
simultaneously from orbit from the
18:37
surface and from below it.
18:39
>> From below it.
18:41
>> From below it. Mars 96 was carrying two
18:45
surface penetrators. Hardened
18:47
cylindrical probes specifically
18:49
engineered to strike the Martian ground
18:51
at 70 to 80 m/s and bury themselves
18:55
several meters underground where they
18:57
would measure seismic activity and heat
18:59
flow for up to a year.
19:01
>> That is actually extraordinary. Aworked
19:04
subsurface Mars science station in 1996.
19:09
It was also carrying two surface
19:11
landers, small autonomous stations that
19:13
would descend using an airbag system to
19:16
cushion their landing. An airbag landing
19:18
concept that NASA's Mars Pathfinder
19:21
would use to enormous public acclaim
19:23
just months later.
19:24
>> So, the technology was there, the
19:27
ambition was there, the international
19:29
partnership was there. And on the night
19:31
of November 16th, 1996, the Proton K
19:35
rocket lifted off from Biconor
19:37
Cosmodrome.
19:39
>> And then almost immediately, something
19:41
went catastrophically wrong.
19:44
>> The spacecraft entered its parking orbit
19:46
successfully. The upper stage was
19:49
supposed to fire and push Mars 96 toward
19:52
interplanetary velocity. It didn't. It
19:55
either failed to ignite properly or shut
19:57
down almost immediately. And here's a
20:00
detail that stays with me. The onboard
20:02
autopilot kept executing its programmed
20:05
sequence. It had no way of knowing the
20:07
mission had already failed. So, it
20:10
separated from the upper stage. It fired
20:12
its own engine. It unfolded its solar
20:15
panels. It began transmitting telemetry.
20:18
>> For a brief moment, controllers in
20:20
Crimea thought it had worked. The
20:22
signals were there. The spacecraft was
20:24
doing everything it was supposed to
20:27
>> until the orbital data arrived and the
20:30
realization set in. Mars 96 had never
20:33
left Earth orbit. It was trapped and it
20:37
was about to come back down
20:39
>> very rapidly.
20:41
>> Early assessments suggested the debris
20:43
might land over Australia, which
20:45
prompted President Clinton to call Prime
20:47
Minister John Howard directly to offer
20:50
support for any recovery operation. As
20:53
tracking data was refined, the projected
20:55
impact zone shifted, eventually settling
20:58
on a corridor across the eastern Pacific
21:01
and into northern Chile and Bolivia.
21:04
>> And in the Andes that same night,
21:06
witnesses reported something unusual, a
21:10
brilliant object moving slowly across
21:12
the sky. Not the sudden flash of a
21:15
meteor, something that lasted nearly a
21:18
minute, jetting glowing fragments that
21:20
briefly lit the thin mountain air before
21:23
fading.
21:24
>> One of those witnesses was an electronic
21:26
specialist at the European Southern
21:28
Observatory, who later said he had no
21:31
illusions that it was anything other
21:33
than a piece of space debris. US Space
21:36
Command later acknowledged in writing,
21:38
"We believe it is reasonable that the
21:40
impact was in fact on land."
21:43
>> And then nothing. A search was never
21:46
performed. Nobody went looking. 30 years
21:49
later, the final resting place of Mars
21:51
96 is completely unknown.
21:54
>> And here is where it gets genuinely
21:57
strange. Those surface penetrators built
22:00
to survive striking Mars at 70 to 80
22:03
meters per second had thick compact
22:06
casings engineered for violent impact.
22:09
It is entirely possible that one or both
22:12
of them survived re-entry and are
22:15
sitting in the Andes right now largely
22:17
intact.
22:19
>> Hardware built for Mars in a Chilean
22:21
valley that nobody has ever looked for.
22:24
The spacecraft was also carrying 18
22:27
radioisotope heater units. Small
22:30
plutonium powered heaters specifically
22:33
engineered to survive catastrophic
22:35
events, including atmospheric re-entry.
22:39
Similar units survived the uncontrolled
22:41
crash of a Soviet satellite over
22:43
northern Canada in 1978.
22:46
So, these two could still be out there.
22:49
>> The Space Review published a beautiful
22:51
retrospective on this story just this
22:53
week. And they put it perfectly. A
22:55
spacecraft engineered to be tracked from
22:58
hundreds of millions of kilometers away
23:01
may instead have vanished somewhere on
23:03
Earth. A world mapped in exquisite
23:05
detail by satellites, aircraft, and
23:08
ordinary people carrying cameras in
23:10
their pockets. Somewhere in a dry valley
23:13
across the windswept aliplano or among
23:16
the salt flats and volcanic slopes of
23:18
the high Andis hardware built for
23:21
another planet may still be lying
23:23
quietly under open sky.
23:25
>> Could we find it today with modern
23:28
satellite imagery, drone surveys, AI
23:31
pattern recognition? Why has nobody gone
23:34
looking in 30 years?
23:36
>> That is a question I genuinely don't
23:38
have an answer to. There is a koda to
23:41
this story that I think deserves to be
23:42
said. Many of Mars 96's science teams
23:46
didn't give up. They went on to
23:48
contribute to ISSA's Mars Express
23:50
mission launched in 2003, which is still
23:53
operating today.
23:55
>> And one instrument, the Alpha Proton
23:57
X-ray spectrometer, developed by the
23:59
University of Chicago for Mars 96,
24:02
actually reached Mars. A closely related
24:05
version of it flew aboard NASA's Mars
24:07
Pathfinder, launched just months after
24:10
the crash. It landed on Mars in 1997 and
24:14
began returning chemical readings from
24:16
the surface.
24:17
>> One instrument made it, carrying forward
24:19
the work of the mission that never got
24:21
there.
24:22
>> Somewhere in the Andes, hardware built
24:25
for another planet sits silent and
24:27
unfound. And somewhere on Mars, a cousin
24:30
of that same hardware did exactly what
24:33
it was built to do. The mission failed.
24:35
The science in part survived. Russia has
24:39
never successfully sent an independent
24:41
Mars mission since Mars 96. Worth
24:45
sitting with, especially this week as we
24:47
watch Aremis 2 completing one of the
24:50
most successful crude missions in
24:52
decades.
24:53
>> Base is hard. Every mission we
24:55
celebrate, every safe return, every
24:58
trajectory burn that fires on time is
25:00
built on decades of missions that didn't
25:03
make it. Mars 96 is one of them.
25:06
>> And if you're ever in the Andes, keep
25:08
your eyes open.
25:09
>> And that is Astronomy Daily for
25:11
Wednesday, April the 8th, 2026. What a
25:14
lineup today.
25:16
>> We had Artemis 2 heading home. A cargo
25:19
ship delayed into a spectacular Friday.
25:22
The origin story of the ground beneath
25:24
your feet rewritten. An alien comet
25:27
saying its final farewell. A new comet
25:29
arriving just in time. And a 30-year-old
25:32
mystery that nobody has solved.
25:35
>> If you enjoyed today's episode, please
25:36
subscribe wherever you get your podcast.
25:38
It genuinely makes a difference in
25:40
helping us reach more space enthusiasts
25:42
around the world.
25:43
>> Leave us a review if you have a moment.
25:45
Tell a friend. Find us on social media.
25:47
We are at Astroailyaily Pod on Twitter
25:50
and X, Instagram, Tik Tok, and YouTube.
25:53
Links and full show notes at
25:55
astronomyaily.io.
25:57
>> We will be back tomorrow with the latest
25:59
from space.
26:00
>> Until then, for Avery, I'm Anna.
26:03
>> And for Anna, I'm Avery. Keep looking
26:05
up. We'll see you tomorrow.
26:18
Stories told.