Latest / Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries / Alien Objects, Seismic Signals & Mars Missions: Investigating Cosmic Curiosities

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Alien Objects, Seismic Signals & Mars Missions: Investigating Cosmic Curiosities · Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello again, thanks for joining us. This is Space Nuts.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Andrew Dunkley and always good to have
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: your company.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Coming up, we have got plenty.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about an alien object that turned
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: out not to be as alien as they thought It was,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: just depends who was driving. I suppose some planets have
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: been found orbiting a nearby star. Can you guess which one?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: If you haven't read it in the news, you're probably wrong.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: We could be right, and starship headed to Mars, and
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: if we've got time, we'll be talking about a couple
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of other things as well.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: That's all coming up on Space.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Nuts Channel ten nine Ignition Big on Space Nuts or three.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Two Space Nuts as when I report it. Neil's good.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Joining us once again is Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer at Large.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Hello Fred, Hello Andrew, excellent to see you.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: It is good to see you too.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Nice shirt pink going with pink Pink today. Yeah, it's
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: actually turned chili here in Sydney. We had thirty seven
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: degrees yesterday, as I believe you did two when yeah,
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: the weather report last night and today it's twenty two. Yeah.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Well we yeah, that party.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: The pool was the perfect location for our ten year
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: old grandson's party yesterday because it was a stinker here.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: We had a big blustery sutherly change overnight and it
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: was fourteen when we woke up, which was so nice.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: It's so nice to have some cool.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Weather because we have had some real rotten days this summer.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: It's been dreadful. Now, for those who are viewing us
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: at the moment and for those who are listening later,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: we have another person in the mix today, and her
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: name is Heidi Campo.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: Hello, Heidi, Hey, guys, how are you.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Doing very well? It's good to have you along.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: And the reason is because I'm going away and that
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: sort of dovetails with Fred just coming back from a trip,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: and we just didn't have time to double up and
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: fill the time I'll be away, So you will be
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: taking over the hosting chair for four or five episodes.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: So Heidi's here to just sort of play observer and
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: see how it's all done. It's not complicated, because if
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: it was, we just couldn't do it. So I'm sure
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: you'll manage, Heidi.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: But feel free to jump in anytime you like.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: And if you're armed with plenty of dad.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Jokes, oh perfect.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: You'll fit in nicely. And for those who may recognize
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Heidi's name, one of the podcasts in our stable is
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: called reality Check the Science of Fiction, which was Heidi's podcast.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I believe you do another podcast though, don't.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: You just reality Check?
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: Okay, talking to subject matter experts about the plausibility of
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: sci fi concepts a little bit on hold right now
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: while I'm practicing real science with some of the research
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: we're doing for NASA right now. But that can be
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: a conversation for the Q and A.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, very good, all right, it was good to have
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: you along.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Now, Fred, We've got plenty of stories to deal with.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: This first one dates back a few years when something
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: hit the Earth's atmosphere and it ended up splashing down
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: somewhere New Papua, New Guinea. And of course, you know,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: everybody said, oh, it's an alien spaceship or parts there
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: or something from an alien world. But now they've been
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: studying the data and it might have been something else.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a it's a he said, she said story. Now,
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: this one, because we covered this I think probably back
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: in twenty twenty three. The story is that the sort
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: of radar network which looks for things coming in detected
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: a meteorite which went through the atmosphere in twenty fourteen,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: and that is thought to have created a seismic signal
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: that led researchers to believe that the debris from that
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: meteorite will be spread across the ocean floor to the
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: east of Manus Island, you said, sort of north of Australia.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: And in fact that there is a team from Harvard
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: led by Professor R. V. Lub whose name crops up
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: quite regularly on this show. He was convinced that because
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: this thing came in I think, if I remember rightly,
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: it was forty seven kilometers per second, that suggests it
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: may well have been an interstellar traveler, a bit like Umuamora,
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: the famous interstellar asteroid that we've also talked about endlessly
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: on Space Nuts. So Arvilob wanted to find debris from
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: this object because he and his team believed that that
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: would essentially allow us to find stuff that was from
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: another solar system, and possibly, because this is his thing,
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: basically engineered stuff from another solar system, it may have
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: been evidence of alien life. So he set up an expedition. Basically,
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: he and his team identified whereabouts on the ocean floor.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: These particles of debris from the meteorite would be based
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: on the seismic signal that had been received and said
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: about trolling the ocean floor with a magnet or something
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: like that, basically to pick up all the ferous material,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: the iron containing material, of which they got quite a
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: lot little spherules of stuff that really was a bit
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: unusual in its chemistry in terms of what we find
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: on Earth. And I think there was a consensus that
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: the material, I mean a scientific consensus that this stuff,
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: whatever it was, was extraterrestrial at least something that had
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: come from beyond the Earth. Fast forward to last week
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: of the week before, when we had evidence that the
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: seismic signal, which purportedly had been used to determine where
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: this stuff would have fallen, that seismic signal has been
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: reanalyzed and it turns out that it was most likely
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: not the object entering the atmosphere, but a truck going
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: around the corner just outside where the seismograph is. It
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: had all the hallmarks of a truck, and so you know,
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: there was a bit of I think there's a publication
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: to the effect that, well, this stuff probably isn't extra
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: from another solar system because the seismic signal was from
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: a truck, not from the meteorite. Oh my gosh. Meanwhile,
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: last week ourvilobe has got another paper which is currently
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: in preparation, which basically says, it doesn't matter. We found
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: the stuff, and our estimate of where the meteorite would
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: have landed did not come principally from the seismic signal.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: It came principally from the radar determinations. And so they
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: are sticking with the story that the stuff they've found
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: on the floor of the ocean is probably from another
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: solar system, if not evidence of alien life, which is
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: of course ovelobes touchstone.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: If I can put it back, I'm going to say
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: he's probably half.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: Right, which are the first half? Yeah, I think that's right. Look,
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: it's great we need people like Gavy because he always
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: thinks outside the box. It's always the same side of
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: the box that he thinks outside of the alien life,
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: alien intelligence. But often his his remarks are taken with
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: not a pinch of salt, but certainly taken with some
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: skepticism is the wrong word. No, it's not skepticism by
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: the by the scientific community, it would be.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: That would be accurate.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The big question on my mind is was it
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: a Ford Ranger or a Dodge Ram the truck.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: I want to know what kind of track it was.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: I don't crate that. Yes, it could have been. I
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: think it might have been bigger than that.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Probably, yeah, probably she could have been one of our
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: outback road trains.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Well, that would certainly have stirred up the seismic grath definitely.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So tell me how this seismic data works. If
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: that's what they initially detected, even though it backed them
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: up the wrong tree, how do they how do they
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: use seismic data to analyze where something's coming from?
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: That's how it seems.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Very very interesting.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: So it's the pressure wave basically, So when an object
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: enters the solar system, sorry, it enters the atmosphere, particularly
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: hurtling along at more than forty kilometers per second, then
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: it creates a shockwave, and that shockwave is basically detected
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: by the seismic graph probably because it shakes the building
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: that the seismic graphs in. I mean, there will be
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: an element of it, that shockwave hitting hitting the ground
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: that stirs up the ground a bit. It is extraordinary
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: how sensitive seismic graphs are. A colleague Siding Spring Observatory
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: who operates as an amateur scientist that operates a seismic
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: graph that can detect, you know, certainly detects explosions in
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: the Hunter Valley call Field, which is about three hundred
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: kilometers away, but also much much more, much more subtle
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: things like trains going fast than the nearest train to
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: his location at Siding Spring is about one hundred kilometers away.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: So I strongly suspect whatever the truck was, it wasn't
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: doing forty five kilometers a second.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: That's what Hi do you?
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I've got a question for you, Fred. So, I
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: don't really know how this works, and I'm sure a
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: lot of the listeners don't either. How is this not
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: more of a common problem, Because if they picked up
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: this truck and didn't know what it was, it sounds
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: like there might be protocol in place for them to
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: differentiate between someone walking around in the facility versus a
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: vehicle versus something that's you know, truly a UFO. So
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: do they normally mistaken other objects?
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Though? It's a really good point, Hidi, because you know,
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: with a seismograph, people walking around it is, it's background
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: interference and it happens all the time. It is a
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: really good point. How did you mix up a truck
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: that's probably going to go around the corner every day
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: with this incoming signal? And I think there may have
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: been some bad luck there, you know, picking out the
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: signal that just happened to be at the right instant
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: in comparison with the radar data. But I think so
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: seismic signals are really interesting. You can learn a lot
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: just by looking at what the trace is and in
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: fact going completely off track. We had a contact, lovely
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: contact in Greenland last month with scientists actually from the
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: UK who did seen the seismic signal of water sloshing
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: around in a fjord in Greenland that went round the
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: world and lasted for nine days. And so that's telling
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: you that there's a really particular kind of characteristic that
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: lets you do the of a seismic signal, that lets
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: you do the forensic science, as you know, as you
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: could put it to work out what's happened. And maybe
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: it's just bad luck that they picked up the signal
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: of the truck and said this has got exactly the
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: kind of trace that you would expect to come from
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: an incoming body, an incoming object.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: How fascinating. And by the way, that truck driver has
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: been done for speeding.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Forty seven kilometers and sected. Yeah, it would be.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: It does remind me of another story we did once
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: about what was that nailien signal that turned out to
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: be a microwave oven.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: Oh well, yes, that's the great story from Parks that
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: they're still embarrassed about. Hippark's radio tell this group.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, but that's a great story. It's popped up
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: on a couple of websites. If you want to go
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: to cosmosmagazine dot com and chase it up. There plenty
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: of information and it is a really interesting story with
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: all the truck driving and weirdness.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: But pushed aside.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Bred Let's move on to our next yarn, And this
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: one is really exciting because they've thought for some time
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: that there's been planets orbiting a certain star and now
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: they think they've found them, although this has been a
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: difficult task because of the angle of observation.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: I believe that's correct. Yes, that's right. So the starring
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: question is it's well known to astronomers, but not very
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: well known to the outside world. If I put it
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: that way, it's Barnard's star, and it was discovered by.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Let me guess, someone named Bernard.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Indeed, indeed, that's right. I'm trying to remember his first name.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: I think it was Edward.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, was it I don't know, I'll look it up
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: id go, No.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: Was it Edward Bernard? Can't remember Anyway, Bernard worked at
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: one of the major US observatories, and in I think
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: nineteen fourteen or thereabout, certainly the early years of the
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: twentieth century, he discovered this star which has and I'm
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: going to use the astronomy gobbledygoop. Now, it has the
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: highest proper motion of any other star known. And the
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: proper motion of a star is its motion across the sky.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: It's as we see it, how fast it moves in
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: the sky. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean it's its true motion,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: because there's probably a component towards us as well, which
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: you can actually detect differently. But it was ten arc
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: seconds a year. Remembering an arcsecond is one three than
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: six hundredths of a degree. The diameter of a one
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: dollar coin held up at five kilometers. That's an Australian
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: one dollar coin, a tiny angle and ten arc seconds
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: isn't many more of them, but it's by far the
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: biggest proper motion motion of a star known. It's galloping
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: across the sky, and so it's been a favorite of
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: astronomers for you know, ever since it was observed more
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: than the century ago first identified, and astronomers, of course,
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: because it's the next nearest star to the proximu centaury system,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: have looked hard for evidence of planets around it, and
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: now they've found them. They found the evidence. There's been
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: a few what you might call tentative measurements that have
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: led people to believe that perhaps Barnard Star had planets.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: But now because of observations made if I remember rightly,
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: it's the Germany North telescope, I should have checked that,
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: shouldn't I. It's observations made, yes, Germany North in Hawaii.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: It's observations that have been made by that telescope have
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: actually nailed it because they have a very sensitive Doppler
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: wobble machine. And Doppler wobble, of course, is the name
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: that we give to the way a star is pulled
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: slightly out of place by the planets going around it,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: and that pulling and pushing of a star by its
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: own planets is something that we pick up by the
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: radio lostity the velocity along the line of sight, which
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: I'm just talking about. So that has now been confirmed
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: that there are for sub earths actually very small planets.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: And the point that you were making, and this is
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: what makes it a bit difficult, because you get much
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: more information if the planets are orbiting in a plane
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: that we can see directly along, so that you have
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: the planets passing in front of their star. That's what
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: we call the transit method for discovering planets. But it
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: also gives you much more information about the diameter of
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: the planets, which we don't get from the wobble technique.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: So there's still some unknowns about the density of these planets,
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: but they are confirmed to be there. So last the
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: big question are there exoplanets orbiting Barnard Star has been answered.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Ah, well, that's good news, bad news for anyone living there.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: I imagine being a red dwarf.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: It is a red dwarf, that's right, which means that
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: the stars are orbiting sort of within the you know,
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: you know within within a region. In fact that most
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: of them all but just within a few days around
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: their parents' style. So they're much closer to Barnode's Star
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: than mercury is to the Sun. And red dwarfs are
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: bad news in that regard because they are relatively active.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: You get these flares of sub atomic particles that might
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: fry anything that's on one of the planets. And I
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: think I am right in saying that none of them
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: are in the habitable zone bar Nod Star. That's the
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: region around a red dwarf where you could have liquid water.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Well, if they did have life in that zone,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: it'd still be perilous, I imagine.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's right, unless it you know, who knows with
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: extra terrestrial life. It could be they could live in
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: the rocks.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Well, that's right, they could be underground, absolutely true. And
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: it was discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard in nineteen six. Well,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: thank you, Yeah, I knew you had it right. You
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: had about forty guesses, but you got it right. It's
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: all good, Okay, if you'd like to read up on that,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: they're got the wrong side up here we go noir
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Lab dot edu. Is you can read the paper on
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: that discovery n ir lab dot edu. There's a Space
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Nuts Andrew Duncley here with Professor Fred Watson and Bidy Campo,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: our guest presenter. Okay, let's take a quick break from
• 18:41
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  Speaker 3: Three space nuts.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Now, well, let's get onto this story, which the popular
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: press absolutely loves. It's Elon Musk, SpaceX founder headed for Mars. Well,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: not personally, although some might say we'd like to see
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: that happen, but it's more about his preparation to colonize Mars,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: and they're looking at a timeline now to send a
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: mission at the end of next year. That's correct, but
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: not with people, not with people. Hang on a second, hid,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: he's got to leave us. Oh thanks for jumping in
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: just to learn the ropes.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you didn't learn anything, but.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll catch up with you real soon and when
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: you take over his host Thanks heardy see you too, Yes,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Elon off after Mars, friend.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: That's right. So you know this is Helon sort of
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: mapping out his plans for for getting to Mars, which
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: it has to be said, all right, I'll say unrealistically ambitious.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, we've just had what was it, Starship eight,
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: which was the eighth test launch of the Starship vehicle,
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: which consists of a booster which is the Falcon Super
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: Heavy with the Starship vehicle itself perchached on top. Starship
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: eight the mixed success. The booster landed successfully with the
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: what's he called the chopstick mechanism on the launch pad,
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: so it returns back to its launch pad. Incredible technology,
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: unbelievable stuff. But the Starship itself blew up, sorry rapid
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: what was it rapid on scheduled disassembly. Yeah. So, but
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: the point I was going to make was Starship nine
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: is following close on its heels because Elon is happy
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: to keep getting these things going until it works, as
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: it did with the whole Falcon nine business when you
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: know they were practicing trying to bring spacecraft back to
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: their launch site. Took a long time to get it right.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: Now is absolutely just standard, it's just the normal situation.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: And I think the record is now. I think it's
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: twenty six flights that one Falcon nine booster has made,
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: and that you know, it's such a cost cutting mechanism.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: It's brilliant stuff. Anyway, going back to Starship, so.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I was just going to say, for all his faults
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: and critics, you've got to applaud him for the rapidity
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: of his development process. He finds the problems, fast fixes them,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and perfects these things in no time. It's quite remarkable.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: It is extraordinary, that's right, an extraordinary person in every way. Anyway.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: One of the reasons why he's got such haste to
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: get Starship to work, well, there's two really. The main one,
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: perhaps is that he's contracted to NASA for Starship to
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: be the landing vehicle to get astronauts on the Moon
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: for the Artemis three flight, which currently is scheduled for
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty seven. That's got to be right to get
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: these astronauts down on the surface and back again into
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: an orbit that will take them back to Earth. That
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: is very much part of the schedule. At the moment,
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: So he's got to make starship work, but at the
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: moment it's not doing the orbitr itself. But the other
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: reason is that he wants to send a starship to
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: Mars at the end of twenty twenty six. And the
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: reason for that imperative is, as you and I have
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: spoken about many times, the windows for launching vehicles to
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Mars come every two years and two months. The next
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: one is late in twenty twenty six, and that's the
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: one he wants to wants to get Otherwise it will
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: be twenty twenty nine, and that's you know, when the
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: next window opens. So Elon is planning a robotic motion, sorry,
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: a robotic flights to Mars with actually they're currently under
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: development humanoid robot which is called Optimus on board, So
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: there will be a humanoid robot on this thing. He's
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: talking about twenty twenty six, and perhaps a landing as
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: well on Mars in twenty twenty six or it be yes,
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: it will be twenty twenty seven when the landing took place.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: So that's a very very ambitious schedule. It's got to
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: get the thing right so it doesn't blow up on
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: launch or when it's in orbit insertion, and it would
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: be a real phillip if he could actually get a
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: spacecraft on its way to Mars by twenty twenty six,
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: even if it wasn't the lander, even if it was
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: a you know, just a flyby or even a going
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: into orbit scenario. So then, but then the other bit is,
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: in fact, we've got a quote from helon which I
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: might just read, will you unders to end it? Starship
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: departs from Mars at the end of next year carrying Optimus.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: If those landings there, you are he's ambitious. His ambition
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: is to land. If those landings go well, then human
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: landings may start as soon as twenty twenty nine, because
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: that's when the next window is open, although he says
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: twenty thirty one is more likely, and I think twenty
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: thirty five is more likely still because we still have
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: so many issues to solve in terms of putting astronauts
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: into a mission that could last up to two years,
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: with all the need for life support, with all the
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: radiation issues, all of that. I think it is a
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: very very big ask to be thinking about anything before
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: the mid twenty thirties.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I imagine.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: So.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: I think one of the most exciting parts of this mission,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: if he can pull it off, is the Optimus robot
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: otherwise known as the Tesla bot, which is in development
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: or incorporated is building it. And by the way, Optimist
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: comes from the TV and movie franchise Transformers, Optimist Prime
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: being one of the main characters. I'm sure you've watched
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: them all, Fred, just like just like I have. But yeah,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: that's where the name comes from. Optimist Prime from Transformers.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: But this is quite remarkable the way the way this
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: is being developed. And you did say humanoid type robot,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: and it does. It does look every bit humanoid. And
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: it's not just Tesla that's developing robots. Other companies have
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: been doing this for a long time, and we're really
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: starting to get well down the road of I suppose
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: we're at the beginning of the spectrum of perfection of robotics,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: independent thinking, operating robots, and that's what this is ultimately
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: going to be. I think that's really exciting. Some people
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: are probably scared witless because they've watched, you know, too
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: many science fiction films about artificial intelligence. But this, this, this,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: this could be the next giant leap in technology, and
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I think they'll pull it off. It's already starting to happen.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's that's exciting news.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Anything more to add about Elon's trip, But.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: Really, I am you know, I look, I I will
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: not be surprised if this happens, just knowing, knowing the
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: drive that Elon has to get stuff happening, stuff fixed.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, without people like Elon in our history,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of stuff would never have happened. And you
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: can you can pinpoint people in history that have done
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: eight things because they didn't listen to the detractors and
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the critics. They just said, no, I've got this idea
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to make it work, and the way
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: they went.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's it's also now complicated by the
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: you know, the the position that Elon occupies within the
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: Trump administration, and we've got all sorts of concerns being
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: expressed about conflicts of interest. There's a lot of stuff
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: happening that is counterintuitive perhaps and not necessarily going all together. Well,
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: and that sort of in a way clouds the issue
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: because the Elon is is basically a genius and that's extraordinary.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: But it may be that that now, you know, is
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: overshadowed by other things that are happening.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, and that's rather unfortunate. But when you when you
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: pick sides in politics, you disenfranchise half the people you do.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: That's exactly right, and which is why Tesla's sales are falling.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Yes, And like I've seen videos of people, you know,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: big name people, and I won't point the finger at them,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: and have already become well known through their own exploits
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: giving away their Tesla vehicles in protest.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so he has kind of ostracized himself, I suppose
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: you could say, in some ways, but he probably doesn't care.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: I don't think so. No, that's right, and so let's
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: see what happens.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, all right, if you'd like to read that story,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: it's at fizz dot org. That's p h y s
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: dot org. If I double z, I don't know what
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: that would.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: Take you to.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: It'll be better not to find you.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: And now I want to look MUDs a couple of
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: quick stories to finish up.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Sphere X Telescope is now up and running or ready
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: to get you know, it's off the planet.
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: It is. That's that's right. It's it's launched on Tuesday
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: last week. I think it's on a quite an interesting
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: initial trajectory. It was a polar orbit that it went
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: into to start with, and it's basically a telescope, which,
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: by the way, only has an eight inch lens on it,
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: which is kind of the size of most amateur telescopes.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: But it's got the most extraordinary detectors and this curious
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: heat exchange system which makes the whole thing look like
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: one of those cones of silence that you put around
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: dogs when they're not supposed to statch there whatever it is,
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: or pull pull their stitches out from whatever's been done
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: to them. We had one of those for our little
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: poodle when he underwent a certain operation, which he tolerated
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: for less than a minute.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've often seen cat videos of them just basically
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: beating themselves to death trying to get those things. Just
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: for the record, fizz dot Org is unreachable. I fight
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: double Z, so I don't know what's going on there,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: but I would have thought that would be a U
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: r L worth a couple a couple of bucks.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: Might be on the dark web.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: Good, And I've just looked at I just tried to
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: look at it. I'm a marked man now, all right.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Sphere x very exciting and that mapping of the universe
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: it's going to happen rather quickly.
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's right, it's a it's a project. I didn't
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: mention it's it's the idea is to map the universe
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: in because it's basically going to look at the whole sky,
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: and that I think is why it's in the polar orbit.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: It maps the glow of the universe in the sense
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: from galaxies and you know, the light of distant star systems.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: And one of the one of the reasons for sphere
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: x is to pin down our understanding of the universe's
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: first period, the ten to the minus thirty two of
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: a second in which it inflated by a factor of
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: ten to the fifty, the epoch of inflation.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: As it's amazing and one quick one Butcher and Sunny
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: nine months on the International Space Station and by the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: time this is released, they might they might be back
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: on Earth.
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: They might indeed, which would be great for them, would
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: be good to see them coming back come because we
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: have had them up there since June last year.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Yes, they're only eight and a half months late for dinner.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: I'm sure their relatives will all be delighted to see them.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't doubt it, and we wish them well.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: We're just about done, friend, Thank you very much.
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: Great pleasure. Andrew, good to talk as always, and we'll
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: see you next time. We will.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: And thanks to Hu in the studio who turned up today.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: He took time out of his efforts to map the
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: universe by hand.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: And from me from me Andrew Dunkley, thanks for your company.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Oh I don't forget to visit our website and do
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: a few things there or our social media Site's always
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: always good fun.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: But until next time, thanks for your company.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: We'll see you on the very next episode of Space Nuts.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Bye bye.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: You'll be listening to the Space Nuts podcast.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or your favorite podcast player.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: You can also stream on demand at bites dot com.
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: This has been another quality podcast production from nights dot com.