Latest / Made of Stars / Artemis II Now Delayed Until April

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Artemis II Now Delayed Until April · Made of Stars

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Speaker 1: Warning.
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Speaker 2: The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
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Speaker 2: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
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Speaker 2: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
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Speaker 2: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar asterism and uranus. Listen,
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Speaker 2: that's your own risk.
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Speaker 3: Go ahead.
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Speaker 4: When made of stars, made them stars, madies. When made
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Speaker 4: of stars.
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Speaker 3: You could be from high they would New Mexicomus, where all.
0:41
Speaker 2: Stars?
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Speaker 1: When we are made of stars.
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Speaker 4: I'm Wes Carol, joined by my good friend doctor Sean Cruising,
1:00
Speaker 4: Executive director of Columbus Ate Universities Coca Cola Space Science Center. Morning,
1:04
Speaker 4: Shawn Born and West is going to be here today.
1:06
Speaker 4: We have some updates on some stories. These are like
1:11
Speaker 4: at least three of our stories this week are follow
1:14
Speaker 4: ups from other stories. The main story that I feel
1:20
Speaker 4: like we have to start with is obviously, because we
1:24
Speaker 4: were talking about two launches or two launch preparations that
1:29
Speaker 4: we've been talking about, and one of the launches hasn't
1:32
Speaker 4: happened yet the other one and we'll get to that,
1:34
Speaker 4: But the other one, of course is the big one.
1:37
Speaker 4: The fact that Artemis two in the process of doing
1:41
Speaker 4: their second attempt at the wet dress rehearsal, and we
1:45
Speaker 4: talked about the fact that there was a real possibility
1:48
Speaker 4: that if they had complications, they'd have to roll it
1:51
Speaker 4: back to the VAB and that's exactly what they have
1:54
Speaker 4: had to do. So an early March launch is not
1:59
Speaker 4: in the cards anymore, and now it seems April Fool's
2:04
Speaker 4: Day could be the next possible window beginning for a
2:08
Speaker 4: launch for Artemis two to venture around the Moon.
2:13
Speaker 3: Really, you know, I'm sure that my frustration is very
2:17
Speaker 3: low compared to those people who actually work on this project. Zach,
2:22
Speaker 3: I'm fear out there. We're feeling anybody so. But but yeah,
2:26
Speaker 3: it's frustrating for all of us who are space enthusiasts
2:29
Speaker 3: because it seemed that everything went so well. Right, So
2:34
Speaker 3: just one week ago we were here doing the podcast,
2:38
Speaker 3: and you know, we're a bit we're a bit of
2:40
Speaker 3: a victim of the space news news cycle because we
2:44
Speaker 3: have a scheduled appointment lesson I do to record this
2:47
Speaker 3: podcast each week, and sometimes that just happens right in
2:50
Speaker 3: the middle of when things are taking place in the
2:53
Speaker 3: in the world of space exploration.
2:55
Speaker 4: I had no idea, by the way, until we started
2:57
Speaker 4: doing this now, almost twenty years ago. How often things
3:02
Speaker 4: are scheduled for Thursdays with NASA. I don't know what
3:07
Speaker 4: the deal is, and it could be anywhere from you know,
3:09
Speaker 4: midnight until you know, just after we've recorded. It seems
3:14
Speaker 4: to be that there's like a ten to twelve hour
3:16
Speaker 4: window of let's just try to do everything on Thursday.
3:19
Speaker 3: In that window, you know, it's probably you don't want
3:22
Speaker 3: to do it on Monday. You know, I don't know
3:24
Speaker 3: why Wednesdays don't seem attractive. You know, there's reasons. I'm
3:29
Speaker 3: sure Friday, like everybody's in Friday mode, like yeah and friends. Yes,
3:35
Speaker 3: I understand NASA probably has much better reasons than what
3:38
Speaker 3: Wes and I are suggesting right now, but it just
3:40
Speaker 3: seems that way. It just seems like, why not just
3:43
Speaker 3: do it on Thursday? And so, you know, when we
3:47
Speaker 3: began this show, as Wes mentioned, we began it on radio,
3:51
Speaker 3: and so we were a regular Thursday morning visit on
3:55
Speaker 3: a radio station. That's what led to this podcast. We
3:58
Speaker 3: just thought, well, let's just stick at the Thursday morning
4:01
Speaker 3: radio format in recording our podcast. But as Wes said,
4:06
Speaker 3: I'm with him, I had no idea what the cadence
4:10
Speaker 3: of Thursday morning was like. At the Kennedy Space Center
4:14
Speaker 3: or at other places where they like to launch rockets,
4:16
Speaker 3: they go a lot on Thursday, and I kind.
4:20
Speaker 4: Of feel I'm not one of those people who thinks
4:23
Speaker 4: that the you know, the the universe rotates around me.
4:27
Speaker 5: I'm really not.
4:27
Speaker 4: I don't watch football and think in the huddle they're
4:29
Speaker 4: talking about me. I'm not one of those people. But
4:32
Speaker 4: I do kind of feel like if we moved the
4:36
Speaker 4: show to Tuesdays, that's when they would decide, let's start
4:39
Speaker 4: doing everything on Tuesday. I just kind of feel like
4:42
Speaker 4: it's just the way it kind of falls. It's just
4:43
Speaker 4: such a weird, random thing that we do this on Thursday.
4:47
Speaker 4: And I know they're not going We're gonna mess with
4:49
Speaker 4: those guys, but it just sometimes kind of feels like
4:52
Speaker 4: the universe is messing with you.
4:54
Speaker 3: I mean, it's maybe the equivalent of like I change
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Speaker 3: lines at the grocery store because it looked like that
5:01
Speaker 3: other line was moving faster. Yes, you know, I don't
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Speaker 3: know that that's about me. I think that's just Murphy statistics.
5:09
Speaker 3: But but yet it does feel like a lot on
5:12
Speaker 3: this podcast, we're in the middle of like a conversation
5:15
Speaker 3: that goes, well, we wish we could tell you the
5:18
Speaker 3: outcome of this thing. It's actually happening right now as
5:20
Speaker 3: we speak, this really important spacewalk, or this giant test
5:25
Speaker 3: of a moon rocket, or there's a launch happening right now,
5:29
Speaker 3: or something at press conference at NASA, all these things
5:33
Speaker 3: like a Thursday. Why Thursday?
5:36
Speaker 4: And you say, you know, as we speak, and as
5:38
Speaker 4: we spoke a week ago, everything was looking great. Things
5:41
Speaker 4: were on track, and as we pointed out, the rocket
5:45
Speaker 4: was still upright. We even got that confirmed in a
5:48
Speaker 4: text message from Zach Koker, who's you know, they're working,
5:52
Speaker 4: and I mean he's not giving us any great insider
5:55
Speaker 4: info other than to tell us that, hey, I'm laying
5:57
Speaker 4: eyes on it. It's upright. And that's the kind of
5:59
Speaker 4: ende that you need. I mean, you know, you got
6:02
Speaker 4: all these guys that get paid big bucks in sports
6:05
Speaker 4: to you know, Hey, I'm at the hospital and here's
6:09
Speaker 4: some privileged information I'm not supposed to share with you,
6:12
Speaker 4: but I'm going to share it anyway because I'm an insider,
6:15
Speaker 4: darn it.
6:16
Speaker 1: And you know, all he did was.
6:18
Speaker 4: Just say, hey, you guys were trying to say, hey,
6:20
Speaker 4: the rocket's still upright. I can confirm that for you.
6:23
Speaker 4: So it was nice to have that kind of insider.
6:25
Speaker 3: Without sharing any kind of secret insider information. Zach was
6:28
Speaker 3: able to confirm that for us, and Zach, we do
6:29
Speaker 3: appreciate your role in this podcast, and I just want
6:32
Speaker 3: to tell.
6:32
Speaker 4: You, yeah, and I assume that it's also still upright,
6:35
Speaker 4: which is the whole purpose of that building, you know.
6:38
Speaker 3: So well, okay, so let's just talk about that because
6:41
Speaker 3: we could actually tie this to the story. When they
6:44
Speaker 3: rolled the big rocket back from the launch pad to
6:47
Speaker 3: the vehicle assembly building, which they did over the last
6:51
Speaker 3: few days, they did have to make sure the wind
6:53
Speaker 3: speed was low enough that they could roll this thing
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Speaker 3: back safely, because apparently being tipped over by a giant
7:02
Speaker 3: gust of wind is a possibility. Because it's a really,
7:07
Speaker 3: really tall rocket. You know, it's roughly thirty six stories tall.
7:12
Speaker 3: So so it's it's big. And so even though that
7:16
Speaker 3: rocket weighs an astounding amount, it actually weighs three point
7:21
Speaker 3: five million pounds, and even though it's attached to a
7:26
Speaker 3: an eleven point three million pound mobile launch platform, and
7:30
Speaker 3: even though all of that is being lifted by a
7:34
Speaker 3: six point six million pound Apollo era Crawler transporter. They
7:40
Speaker 3: still have to check the wind.
7:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you want to That thing tipping over would
7:45
Speaker 4: be like the worst thing that could happen.
7:48
Speaker 3: Maybe other than the loss of human life, the absolute
7:51
Speaker 3: worst thing that could happen.
7:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, But the fact that there's nobody in it while
7:55
Speaker 4: it's rolling around, you know, kind of decreases the chance
7:59
Speaker 4: of that happening.
8:00
Speaker 5: But yeah, it would be really bad.
8:01
Speaker 4: And this isn't like you know, the James Web Space
8:04
Speaker 4: telescope where you can just drop it and still send
8:06
Speaker 4: it to space and still get amazing images.
8:09
Speaker 3: We have a jawsc story by the way, we too.
8:12
Speaker 4: This is this is effectively our teas for James Webb
8:15
Speaker 4: coming up. But anyway, so yeah, they have to make
8:19
Speaker 4: sure it's not gonna tip over, and then they roll
8:21
Speaker 4: it back on this this massive, little like flat tank thing.
8:25
Speaker 3: Yep. And so here's what happened friends the big stage,
8:30
Speaker 3: and we were all kind of celebrating this with Zach
8:32
Speaker 3: included Thursday evening into Friday. It was like, hey, everything
8:36
Speaker 3: went It looks like it all went great. And that's
8:40
Speaker 3: that's maybe the disappointing part for all of us who
8:42
Speaker 3: are just space fans. It looked like it was going great.
8:45
Speaker 3: It's like, oh, hey, they could launch this thing very soon.
8:49
Speaker 3: They might even be able to launch this thing at
8:51
Speaker 3: the first part of March, which is, you know, soon
8:53
Speaker 3: from we're recording the show right now. But no, what
8:57
Speaker 3: happened was in the second stage. The second stage has
9:03
Speaker 3: a helium connection to it. They have to fill it
9:06
Speaker 3: up with helium. Helium is used as an inert gas,
9:09
Speaker 3: obviously to pressurize the tanks that have the fuel in
9:13
Speaker 3: it so that they can maintain pressure and continue to
9:16
Speaker 3: pump that fuel into those engines. So they have to
9:18
Speaker 3: be able to pump helium into those tanks, and so
9:21
Speaker 3: helium has to be pumped into that second stage, the
9:24
Speaker 3: upper stage of the SLS rocket. That stage has a name,
9:30
Speaker 3: it's called the interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage or the ICPS,
9:35
Speaker 3: and the ICPS there was some kind of an interruption
9:38
Speaker 3: in the flow of helium into the ICPS into that
9:42
Speaker 3: upper stage, and that's what caused basically a failure of
9:47
Speaker 3: the test, the ground test, the wet dress rehearsal serious
9:51
Speaker 3: enough that they could not figure it out on the
9:53
Speaker 3: launch pad. So they're having to roll the vehicle back,
9:57
Speaker 3: which they have now done. It's back in the VAB
10:00
Speaker 3: and they will be going through a series of tests
10:03
Speaker 3: to figure out why the helium was not flowing properly
10:08
Speaker 3: to the interim cryogenic propulsion stage or the ICPS. And
10:13
Speaker 3: it could be it could be a valve. And the
10:17
Speaker 3: reason we know it could be a valve is because
10:18
Speaker 3: back on Artemis one in twenty twenty two, there was
10:22
Speaker 3: a helium valve that failed to operate properly. Now, the
10:26
Speaker 3: new NASA administrator, Jerk Isaacan, came out with a statement
10:29
Speaker 3: and said that the valve could be the culprit, but
10:32
Speaker 3: quote though corrective actions were taken to minimize the occurrence
10:36
Speaker 3: of this on Artemis two unquote, So they were hoping
10:40
Speaker 3: they had the helium valves figured out. And mind you,
10:44
Speaker 3: it could be something else. It could be a problem
10:47
Speaker 3: with the quick disconnect valve. It could be a filter
10:51
Speaker 3: in the umbilical, the actual hose that runs that helium
10:55
Speaker 3: out to that upper stage. They're looking at all of
10:57
Speaker 3: these things, but sadly they can't do out on the
11:00
Speaker 3: launch pad. They have to roll the vehicle back, and
11:03
Speaker 3: that means that now we'll be looking at a minimum
11:05
Speaker 3: delay of no sooner than April first, So they're just
11:11
Speaker 3: telling us, hey, this launch will now not happen in
11:14
Speaker 3: the month of March, no sooner than April first. That's
11:17
Speaker 3: the next combination of when we think we might have
11:20
Speaker 3: the rocket ready and when the astro mechanics of everything
11:23
Speaker 3: lining up in the sky so that we can have
11:25
Speaker 3: a window for launch occurs. It'll be April first or
11:29
Speaker 3: later for NASA's SOLS rocket. Just the interesting thing to know.
11:33
Speaker 3: I was going through the weights of those components a
11:36
Speaker 3: minute ago. So if you take the crawler, which is
11:38
Speaker 3: as Wes said, it's a flat tank. It's like a
11:40
Speaker 3: big rolling cart, and the SLS rocket that's sitting on
11:45
Speaker 3: top of that, and then the mobile launch platform that
11:47
Speaker 3: SLS is attached to, and that's what's rolling from the
11:51
Speaker 3: launchpad back to the vehicle assembly building. It's over twenty
11:56
Speaker 3: one pounds total, six point six million pounds for the crawler,
12:02
Speaker 3: three point five million pounds for SLS, and about eleven
12:05
Speaker 3: point three million pounds for the mobile lunch platform. That's
12:09
Speaker 3: it's a hard to imagine amount of weight, but I
12:12
Speaker 3: did a little math before the show, and that's about
12:16
Speaker 3: forty two Boeing seven eighty seven Dreamliners at maximum takeoff weight.
12:22
Speaker 3: That means full of passengers, full of luggage, full of fuel,
12:28
Speaker 3: forty two of those.
12:30
Speaker 5: That's a lot.
12:32
Speaker 3: Imagine stacking forty two Dreamliners fully loaded with fuel, passengers
12:38
Speaker 3: and luggage ready to go to flight, and you have
12:40
Speaker 3: to put that on a cart and roll it around. Well,
12:43
Speaker 3: that's that's roughly the gross weight of the SLS, the
12:47
Speaker 3: mobile launch platform, and the crawler itself rolling across that
12:51
Speaker 3: gravel road between launch Pad thirty eight B and the VBA.
12:57
Speaker 5: I know that you ab.
13:00
Speaker 4: I know that you mentioned the helium, the role of
13:03
Speaker 4: helium in this, and I think we had to kind
13:07
Speaker 4: of explain this thoroughly once before because of what you're
13:10
Speaker 4: talking about. So basically, when you've got these fuel tanks,
13:13
Speaker 4: as the fuel leaves the tank, something has to stay
13:17
Speaker 4: in to keep the tank pressurized, and you mentioned that,
13:20
Speaker 4: and that's what the role helium has in that. So
13:23
Speaker 4: helium has a significant a role in making sure that
13:27
Speaker 4: this thing just doesn't crush like an aluminum can, right.
13:30
Speaker 3: That, and that the fuel continues to flow out of
13:33
Speaker 3: that tank through the system. Right, It's like back pressure
13:36
Speaker 3: for the fuel as well. So both of those things
13:38
Speaker 3: are true. The last time I remember talking about this
13:41
Speaker 3: was actually a SpaceX. They had a SpaceX failure, and
13:45
Speaker 3: rights these X early on had many problems with this
13:49
Speaker 3: particular feature on their Falcon nine rocket. They had, you know,
13:52
Speaker 3: a few different incidents where the helium tank failed for
13:56
Speaker 3: one reason or another or just was not ready to
13:59
Speaker 3: go for launch, had to lay launch it. So yeah,
14:02
Speaker 3: it's I mean, listen, dealing with cryogenic fuels, and especially
14:06
Speaker 3: something as quirky as liquid hydrogen is one of the craziest,
14:11
Speaker 3: most difficult engineering problems out there, because you know, liquid hydrogen,
14:16
Speaker 3: for instance, as a propellant which the main stage uses
14:18
Speaker 3: for sls that stuff immediately. I mean, it's it's one
14:23
Speaker 3: of the coldest substances you can have on Earth. It
14:25
Speaker 3: doesn't want to stay in the liquid phase. It has
14:29
Speaker 3: to be almost an absolute zero to be a liquid,
14:31
Speaker 3: so it's going to warm up immediately, and as it does,
14:34
Speaker 3: you have to release that gaseous hydrogen off of that
14:38
Speaker 3: fuel storage in order for pressure simply not to blow
14:42
Speaker 3: things apart. So it's all tricky, right, So it's fully
14:46
Speaker 3: understandable when these massive rock is using these crowdgenic fuels
14:51
Speaker 3: have to go through safety tests, and occasionally that doesn't
14:55
Speaker 3: work out and valves freeze and problems happen. So that's
15:01
Speaker 3: just rocket science, right. So it may be disappointing to
15:05
Speaker 3: all of us out here, just fanboys wanting to see
15:07
Speaker 3: a rocket launch, but we are very happy that NASA
15:10
Speaker 3: is taking the proper precautions and making sure that launch
15:13
Speaker 3: is going to be safe.
15:15
Speaker 4: More made of stars. Right after this next we have
15:39
Speaker 4: a lunar eclipse on the horizon. Well sort of, but
15:43
Speaker 4: it kind of is, isn't it. It's sort it's going
15:46
Speaker 4: to be, But a lunar eclipse is coming, and it's
15:49
Speaker 4: coming on March the third, so before the next show
15:53
Speaker 4: that we do.
15:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, and if you live in our area in the
15:56
Speaker 3: eastern United States, it will quite literally be on the
16:00
Speaker 3: and it'll be on the western horizon that day. And
16:02
Speaker 3: that's because where we live in Columbus, Georgia, in the
16:06
Speaker 3: greater Atlanta area. You can think of it that way.
16:09
Speaker 3: The moon will actually be setting as it goes into
16:11
Speaker 3: lunar eclipse, so as it goes into totality the stage
16:15
Speaker 3: of the maximum amount of eclipse on March on early
16:19
Speaker 3: morning Tuesday, March the third, twenty twenty six, the moon
16:23
Speaker 3: will be setting and going into the eclipse shadow at
16:26
Speaker 3: the same time. So if you want to see the event,
16:30
Speaker 3: you have to make sure you have a clear northwestern
16:33
Speaker 3: horizon or west to northwest horizon. You want to be
16:37
Speaker 3: able to see to the west. How are we going
16:39
Speaker 3: to take care of that here at Space Sign Center. Well,
16:42
Speaker 3: we can't here at Space Sign Center because we have
16:45
Speaker 3: lots and lots of trees along a lovely riverwalk feature
16:49
Speaker 3: right to the western part of our facility at the
16:53
Speaker 3: Coca Cola Space Sign Center, Columbus State University, Columbus, Georgia.
16:56
Speaker 3: So we won't be here. That's what we're going to do.
17:00
Speaker 3: We're going to go someplace else. And the someplace else
17:03
Speaker 3: that we're going to go is on top of the
17:05
Speaker 3: Columbus State University parking structure on this on the CSU
17:10
Speaker 3: mean campus. We're going to be on the very top
17:12
Speaker 3: of that structure. Because I went up there with a
17:15
Speaker 3: compass and in a clock and I kind of looked
17:19
Speaker 3: and saw, oh, the Moon's going to be about right
17:22
Speaker 3: here as it sets, and oh, look, you can see
17:26
Speaker 3: almost to the visible horizon in the distance from the
17:29
Speaker 3: top of that parking garage. So on March the third,
17:34
Speaker 3: if you want to join us, if you're in the
17:35
Speaker 3: general Columbus State Columbus Georgia region area and you're an
17:40
Speaker 3: early riser, we're going to be out there about four
17:42
Speaker 3: thirty AM, and that's when the moon begins to go
17:46
Speaker 3: into the totality phase. It'll be higher in the sky
17:48
Speaker 3: at that time, and from about that time at four
17:51
Speaker 3: thirty until about six or a little after six thirty,
17:56
Speaker 3: it's going to be moving into totality and it it
18:00
Speaker 3: will be in totality phase. Total lunary eclipse, as both
18:04
Speaker 3: the sun is rising in the east and the moon
18:07
Speaker 3: is setting in the west. You see at a lunar
18:10
Speaker 3: eclipse the moon is always perfectly opposite in the sky
18:14
Speaker 3: from the Sun as viewed from Earth. That's because it's
18:16
Speaker 3: Earth that's getting in the way of the Sun's light
18:19
Speaker 3: hitting the moon, so all those things are directly opposite.
18:22
Speaker 3: So again, find a clear western to northwestern horizon, or
18:27
Speaker 3: just come join us on top of the CSU parking garage.
18:29
Speaker 3: You come around six am rather and you'd be able
18:33
Speaker 3: to see it setting there in the west, and that'll
18:36
Speaker 3: probably be good enough. Although if you want if you're
18:38
Speaker 3: if you're really into it and you want to join
18:40
Speaker 3: us at four thirty we'll be out there about four
18:42
Speaker 3: thirty am.
18:43
Speaker 4: Something else to look at in the sky. But as
18:46
Speaker 4: we record this on Thursday, you better be listening to
18:49
Speaker 4: it today to know about it because and I've seen
18:53
Speaker 4: it online. Oh my gosh, all the planets are going
18:56
Speaker 4: to line up and dance for you in the sky
18:58
Speaker 4: or whatever it is. But it's another one of these stories.
19:02
Speaker 3: I'm glad you mentioned that one, because that one should
19:04
Speaker 3: be addressed. If you're on some social media platform whose
19:10
Speaker 3: initials happened to be FB. There's a lot of conversations
19:14
Speaker 3: about on alignment of planets in the sky. All the
19:17
Speaker 3: planets are aligning again. Well, okay, so they're all on
19:24
Speaker 3: the ecliptic, But they were all on the ecliptic last
19:26
Speaker 3: week and next week and every day this year. They'll
19:29
Speaker 3: be on the ecliptic because that's the apparent path of
19:32
Speaker 3: the planets across the nighttime sky, because it's the projected
19:36
Speaker 3: plane of the Solar System. So it's not really that well,
19:39
Speaker 3: they're in kind of a common wedge on one side
19:41
Speaker 3: of the ecliptic. Yes, they are they are true, So
19:46
Speaker 3: that should be a great site, right, well, it would
19:49
Speaker 3: be if the Sun wasn't in the way. They're all
19:52
Speaker 3: kind of gathering, not all of them, by the way,
19:55
Speaker 3: a good number of the planets in the Solar System
19:57
Speaker 3: we're sort of gathering in one wedge of the sky,
20:00
Speaker 3: but it's where the Sun is. So in order to
20:03
Speaker 3: see any of these planets, you gotta look. You gotta
20:05
Speaker 3: again have a very clear western horizon. You gotta look
20:07
Speaker 3: moments after the sun sets. You might be able to
20:10
Speaker 3: see Mercury and Venus. You're gonna have a really hard
20:14
Speaker 3: time seeing any of the outer planets. Like you're in
20:17
Speaker 3: a neptune and the planet Jupiter's up in a position
20:22
Speaker 3: to be viewed on a much larger, longer timeframe. So
20:26
Speaker 3: let me just tell you this is a great time
20:28
Speaker 3: right now to go go view Jupiter. There. That's my
20:31
Speaker 3: headline for you, and it just so happens as Wes
20:35
Speaker 3: mentioned that if you're one of those early listeners, you
20:38
Speaker 3: got the little bell set and as soon as we
20:40
Speaker 3: post this podcast you're on it. Well, then tonight, friends,
20:44
Speaker 3: go out and check the Moon being very close to Jupiter,
20:49
Speaker 3: because they're gonna be very close together in the night
20:51
Speaker 3: time sky tonight in the constellation of Gemini. And I
20:55
Speaker 3: know there's some of you people who are like listening
20:56
Speaker 3: a day or two late, but you might be wondering,
20:58
Speaker 3: what was that really the right thing I saw close
21:01
Speaker 3: to the moon a couple of nights ago, Jupiter. That's
21:05
Speaker 3: the answer. Sorry you missed the event, or I'm glad
21:09
Speaker 3: you saw it, wondered about it. Now we can tell
21:11
Speaker 3: you what it is. All of those things, right, So
21:14
Speaker 3: there you go. And friends, if you're listening late and
21:16
Speaker 3: you go, darn, I missed it, go ahead and set
21:19
Speaker 3: that little bell to notify you win this podcast post
21:22
Speaker 3: because sometimes we talk about things that are happening on
21:25
Speaker 3: Thursdays because Thursday is a great day for space.
21:28
Speaker 5: That's right, and this is no exception.
21:31
Speaker 4: Another follow up story from last week is the Stairway
21:35
Speaker 4: to seven still hasn't happened yet.
21:37
Speaker 3: Cool name a name given by Firefly Aerospace to their
21:42
Speaker 3: own mission. That's because this is the seventh flight of
21:45
Speaker 3: their Alpha rocket and so they wanted it to go great.
21:49
Speaker 3: We got on this podcast, talked about it last week,
21:52
Speaker 3: said hey, they're about to launch it. But again, it
21:54
Speaker 3: was one of those Thursday phenomenons, and they were going
21:56
Speaker 3: to launch it on Friday. It didn't launch on Friday,
21:59
Speaker 3: So now it's going to launch no earlier than the
22:01
Speaker 3: twenty seventh of February, which is tomorrow. So there's another
22:06
Speaker 3: kind of Thursday thing. But we're hoping that Firefly is
22:09
Speaker 3: able to launch this mission because it's allowing them to
22:12
Speaker 3: enter into a whole new era of space payloads that
22:17
Speaker 3: they're able to launch and becoming another commercial spaceflight company
22:20
Speaker 3: that's contributing to the overall commercial space program in the
22:25
Speaker 3: United States of America.
22:27
Speaker 4: All Right, another follow up, and this has been a
22:30
Speaker 4: little bit more of a delay. This wasn't like from
22:33
Speaker 4: last week, but it's been a few weeks since we've
22:35
Speaker 4: talked about this. But it's really kind of a here's
22:38
Speaker 4: a little bit of info, but not a lot of info,
22:42
Speaker 4: but we now know at least which astronaut was aboard
22:46
Speaker 4: the International Space Station. Maybe it's a it's significant and
22:49
Speaker 4: it's an asterisk for you know, who is the first
22:53
Speaker 4: astronaut to have a medical crisis and need to come
22:56
Speaker 4: back down to Earth in the middle of a mission.
22:59
Speaker 4: And I guess that it is the significance of the
23:01
Speaker 4: information although we still don't really know what the medical
23:04
Speaker 4: crisis was, nor do I necessarily think it's any of
23:07
Speaker 4: our business. But we know which astronaut it was now,
23:10
Speaker 4: and it's not necessarily the one that we suspected.
23:14
Speaker 3: So and I forget why we actually suspected suspected.
23:18
Speaker 1: I don't remember either, but I remember us.
23:21
Speaker 4: But I do think that this was option too on
23:23
Speaker 4: our list, so I think, you know, yeah, I think
23:26
Speaker 4: if I'm remembering correctly.
23:29
Speaker 3: So, NASA SpaceX Crew eleven scheduled to spend spend about
23:35
Speaker 3: six months aboard the International Space Station. Their mission was
23:39
Speaker 3: cut a bit short, so they did go from August
23:41
Speaker 3: first of twenty twenty five until they returned on January
23:44
Speaker 3: fifteenth of twenty twenty six, one hundred and sixty seven
23:47
Speaker 3: day stay aboard ISS. That was a little shorter than
23:51
Speaker 3: what they were planning to stay though, because that mission
23:54
Speaker 3: concluded because of the first ever medical evacuation from space.
24:00
Speaker 3: About the number of years that human beings have been
24:02
Speaker 3: going to space, this is the first time that we
24:06
Speaker 3: have ever had to evacuate or early cancel a space
24:12
Speaker 3: mission because someone in space had a medical emergency. The
24:17
Speaker 3: folks on board ISS for crew eleven included Xena Cardman,
24:22
Speaker 3: Michael Fink Jackson, astronaut Comita You and Russ Cosmos or
24:29
Speaker 3: the cosmonaut Oleg platin Off. I don't know why we
24:32
Speaker 3: decided we thought it was the cosmonaut. I can't even
24:34
Speaker 3: remember now.
24:35
Speaker 4: I don't know what led to that, other than the fact.
24:38
Speaker 3: Maybe we're just putting red checkers on squares hoping to
24:41
Speaker 3: win the pool.
24:41
Speaker 4: Possibly, or or maybe it was just the fact that they,
24:45
Speaker 4: you know, they weren't. They weren't giving us a whole
24:49
Speaker 4: lot of info, and it kind of seemed like, well,
24:51
Speaker 4: maybe there's an international reason for that.
24:53
Speaker 5: I don't know. I don't know where our speculation came from.
24:56
Speaker 1: However, it wasn't him.
24:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, it wasn't him. I mean know, we talk about
25:01
Speaker 3: space news, but that doesn't mean we're a news outlet.
25:04
Speaker 3: This is a podcast. So you do things like put
25:07
Speaker 3: red squares on the office pool to see which space
25:09
Speaker 3: flower miret.
25:11
Speaker 4: I mean, we but to be fair, we we don't.
25:14
Speaker 4: Necessarily we're not. We didn't report that that's who it was.
25:17
Speaker 4: I think we just kind of had a speculation about us.
25:19
Speaker 4: But you know, we didn't dive in and say that's
25:21
Speaker 4: definitely who it was. So I don't think we necessarily
25:24
Speaker 4: took that. I think we handled it in a very
25:28
Speaker 4: journal I think we we we used more journalism than
25:31
Speaker 4: many outlets use. I think we were more reserved than
25:35
Speaker 4: a lot of places, because when we're.
25:38
Speaker 3: Just making stuff up, we also tell you, yeah, that's right.
25:41
Speaker 3: We have no insider information. We just think it's the cosmonop.
25:43
Speaker 3: We're gonna put the red checker there.
25:45
Speaker 4: I actually saw a news story in the last two
25:48
Speaker 4: days that said that the US women's hockey team that
25:53
Speaker 4: one gold did not go to the White House or
25:58
Speaker 4: the State of the Union because they were going to
26:00
Speaker 4: go and hang out with Flavor Flave in Vegas. And
26:06
Speaker 4: as I read the article, I thought, well, this is
26:08
Speaker 4: interesting because they said it was because of education and
26:12
Speaker 4: you know, pre scheduled events that they had appearances. And
26:15
Speaker 4: then I got to the end of the article and
26:17
Speaker 4: at no point in the article did it say that
26:19
Speaker 4: they were actually going to be doing that, but the
26:21
Speaker 4: headline certainly suggested that they had accepted this invitation. And
26:25
Speaker 4: I thought, this is really journalism at its finest, This
26:28
Speaker 4: is everything wrong with journalism because and basically, by the
26:33
Speaker 4: end of it it said, so if they choose to
26:35
Speaker 4: go hang out with him, this would be it sounds
26:37
Speaker 4: like it would be a good time. And it's like, well,
26:39
Speaker 4: that's not what you said in the headline, is it.
26:42
Speaker 3: And one of the other things is we don't know
26:43
Speaker 3: the medical condition of flavor Flave.
26:46
Speaker 5: That's very true.
26:48
Speaker 3: We have no sort of information about none kind of
26:52
Speaker 3: health issues that flavor Flave might be experiencing it.
26:55
Speaker 5: That's very very true.
26:57
Speaker 4: Other than I suspect he probably has a neck from
27:00
Speaker 4: carrying that clock around his neck for so many years.
27:03
Speaker 4: That's it looks pretty heavy. We also don't know the
27:06
Speaker 4: specific medical crisis that that sent them back home. All
27:12
Speaker 4: I saw in what I read was it just said
27:15
Speaker 4: that it required some sort of a scan when he
27:18
Speaker 4: got back to Earth, and that's it. That was the
27:20
Speaker 4: extent of what I saw, And I thought, Okay, well
27:22
Speaker 4: that could be I don't know like a thousand things, but.
27:25
Speaker 3: Let's just be clear. I think Wes and I've had
27:26
Speaker 3: some off air conversations about this. We're talking about Mike
27:29
Speaker 3: fink Yeah, where NASA astronaut Mike fink Is has come
27:34
Speaker 3: out himself and said I was the one, right, So
27:37
Speaker 3: that's the only reason we're even talking about it today.
27:40
Speaker 3: Mike Fink himself on behalf of you Know, Mike Fink,
27:43
Speaker 3: NASA put out a statement and it literally says, you know,
27:47
Speaker 3: at the request of NASA astronaut Mike Fink, and Mike
27:50
Speaker 3: Fink said this. On January seventh, walliboard the International Space Station,
27:53
Speaker 3: I experienced a medical event that required immediate attention from
27:58
Speaker 3: my incredible crewmates. Thanks to their quick response and the
28:02
Speaker 3: guidance of our NASA flight surgeons, my status quickly stabilized.
28:07
Speaker 3: After further evaluation, NASA determined that the safest course was
28:10
Speaker 3: for an early return of Crew eleven. Not an emergency,
28:14
Speaker 3: but a carefully coordinated plan to be able to take
28:17
Speaker 3: advantage of medical imaging not available on the space station.
28:21
Speaker 3: On January fifteenth, he says, we because I'm still quoting
28:25
Speaker 3: might think, we splashed down off the coast of San
28:28
Speaker 3: Diego after an amazing five and a half month mission unquote.
28:33
Speaker 3: So he wrote more, but that covers the fundamentals of it, right. So,
28:38
Speaker 3: so it was Mike think and Mike, we wish you
28:40
Speaker 3: the best, right. We don't want to share any uncomfortable
28:45
Speaker 3: medical information here. We just want to wish you the
28:47
Speaker 3: best hope that you, as again a legendary space flyer
28:51
Speaker 3: with NASA, have a quick recovery from whatever circumstance that
28:56
Speaker 3: might have been that you were experiencing a board.
28:58
Speaker 4: Iss more made of stars right after this. Earlier in
29:23
Speaker 4: the show, I referenced the James Webspace Telescope being dropped
29:26
Speaker 4: before it was finally put into service.
29:30
Speaker 5: It has not held it back at all.
29:31
Speaker 4: We've had some amazing images that have come from the JWST,
29:36
Speaker 4: and the latest images are certainly no exception.
29:43
Speaker 3: There was that time where I had my new phone
29:45
Speaker 3: and I was I had the otter case or whatever
29:48
Speaker 3: case I had. I was going to put it in
29:50
Speaker 3: that protective case, and before I could get it in there,
29:55
Speaker 3: it slipped from my hand and as Murphy statistics to do,
30:00
Speaker 3: this thing hit glass down on a tile floor and
30:06
Speaker 3: immediately cracked the screen. I had this thing less than
30:09
Speaker 3: a week.
30:11
Speaker 4: Are we talking about a phone? Are we talking about
30:13
Speaker 4: a Gabby Award? Which are we talking about.
30:19
Speaker 3: Your Your various comment shows that it's a pattern with it,
30:25
Speaker 3: because that also happened.
30:27
Speaker 4: I mean, any opportunity to mention that you know we
30:30
Speaker 4: won the Gabby for Best podcast series, I just you know,
30:35
Speaker 4: any chance to bring that up. But that trophy also,
30:37
Speaker 4: I think, which was made of a fantastic crystal.
30:40
Speaker 3: Just you know, it was a beautiful crystal trophy, and
30:43
Speaker 3: I decided I wanted to put it on some sort
30:45
Speaker 3: of a pedestal so I could photograph it. On the
30:48
Speaker 3: day it arrived that I had a special order it,
30:51
Speaker 3: it slipped off the pedestal and smashed.
30:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's also now in a protective case. But
30:58
Speaker 4: the point is don't drop it. Expensive fancy things.
31:02
Speaker 3: Then you drop expensive fragile things, they break. So don't
31:05
Speaker 3: drop the James Webspace telescope because it might break. Fortunately, apparently,
31:12
Speaker 3: as Wes mentioned, even though it was dropped in northern
31:16
Speaker 3: part of South America when they were trying to load
31:18
Speaker 3: it into the payload fairing before launching it into space,
31:20
Speaker 3: it didn't really damage it in a way that we
31:23
Speaker 3: can tell, because it's delivering absolutely beautiful images. Now, this
31:27
Speaker 3: is the part where we go through the awkward process
31:30
Speaker 3: of talking about a picture on a podcast where you
31:33
Speaker 3: can't actually see the videos. What we're hoping to do
31:36
Speaker 3: is give you so much information that it entices you
31:38
Speaker 3: to actually go look for yourself because this is really cool.
31:42
Speaker 3: On NASA dot gov, there is a newly released set
31:46
Speaker 3: of images of something that has been has been nicknamed
31:51
Speaker 3: the cranium nebula, the cranium nebula, And you know, according
31:59
Speaker 3: to those who have commented on this and came up
32:01
Speaker 3: with a nickname, it looks like a brain inside a
32:04
Speaker 3: transparent skull. That's what it looks like.
32:09
Speaker 5: That is exactly what it looks like.
32:10
Speaker 3: To those people with active imaginations who see this thing.
32:13
Speaker 3: It looks like you can see the kind of hemispherical
32:16
Speaker 3: structure that invokes the brain like image. So, yeah, the
32:23
Speaker 3: exposed cranium nebula there, it is so all right, So
32:27
Speaker 3: what is it really? Well, it's actually a dying star.
32:29
Speaker 3: It's a star that is reaching the end of its lifetime.
32:33
Speaker 3: The outer layers of that star are being released in
32:36
Speaker 3: a succession of shock waves. We have theorized for a
32:41
Speaker 3: long time that this is probably the way that most
32:43
Speaker 3: stars die, they go through this process. But this might
32:47
Speaker 3: be the best image ever of that process ongoing, or
32:53
Speaker 3: the best set of images and most detailed set of
32:56
Speaker 3: images that we've actually captured of a star going through
33:00
Speaker 3: its last phases of shell release. It's releasing all these
33:05
Speaker 3: shells of hydrogen, helium, other materials that make this kind
33:11
Speaker 3: of brain looking structure. Right there. You can even maybe
33:15
Speaker 3: see the progenitor star or the parent star down in
33:18
Speaker 3: the inner part of the middle of that brain actually
33:21
Speaker 3: right there, like Smocks brain in that one episode anyway,
33:24
Speaker 3: So it's right there. So what we're doing is now
33:27
Speaker 3: we're imaging this with the James Webspace Telescope in a
33:30
Speaker 3: couple of different infrared bands so that we can see
33:34
Speaker 3: two different levels of depth down into this cloud and
33:39
Speaker 3: really understand what processes are taking place. They give it
33:43
Speaker 3: this really interesting structure. So congratulations NASA and JWST on
33:48
Speaker 3: exposing the big brain in the sky and giving us
33:51
Speaker 3: more information about the way that stars go through their
33:54
Speaker 3: late stages of their death process.
33:58
Speaker 4: This is the point in the show where we tell
33:59
Speaker 4: every hey, this is what's going on at the Cocola
34:02
Speaker 4: Space Science Center. You've kind of already mentioned one of
34:05
Speaker 4: the big events, which would be, you know, if you
34:07
Speaker 4: want to get up at four o'clock and come hang
34:09
Speaker 4: out at the parking garage on the issue's main campus
34:12
Speaker 4: and take a look at the eclipse. But that same
34:15
Speaker 4: day later in the day much less maybe tired and groggy,
34:20
Speaker 4: not for people who got up at four o'clock, but
34:22
Speaker 4: for people who didn't get up at four o'clock. Is
34:25
Speaker 4: Music under the Dome, the next edition of that happening
34:28
Speaker 4: the Music.
34:29
Speaker 6: Into the Dome concert series here at Columbus State University's
34:32
Speaker 6: Coca Cola Space Science Center inside the Atmosphere Theater, featuring
34:35
Speaker 6: the talents of the faculty and students from the Schwob
34:38
Speaker 6: School of Music here at Columbus State.
34:41
Speaker 3: Friends, we are super excited about twenty twenty six, the
34:45
Speaker 3: first concert of this year taking place on Tuesday, March third,
34:51
Speaker 3: several hours after the eclipse. Yes, I'll be up at
34:54
Speaker 3: you know, three point thirty am or something getting ready
34:57
Speaker 3: to take telescopes out to the parking garage. And I
35:00
Speaker 3: also have a nighttime concert. I think I have a
35:01
Speaker 3: midday event as well. I'm I'm just going to hook
35:04
Speaker 3: up the Caffeine IV that day, I believe, but I
35:07
Speaker 3: hope that you come and join us for the latter
35:09
Speaker 3: part of that beautiful day of events, the Music under
35:12
Speaker 3: the Dome Concert and friends. Let me just tell you,
35:14
Speaker 3: this is one of three more concerts that are going
35:16
Speaker 3: to happen here at Columbus State University in the spring
35:19
Speaker 3: of twenty twenty six, one on March third, another one
35:23
Speaker 3: in the first week of April, and another one the
35:24
Speaker 3: first week of May. All of those concerts are on
35:28
Speaker 3: our website and you can follow the link there to
35:31
Speaker 3: go buy tickets for those concerts. If you're in the area,
35:33
Speaker 3: please come and join us. However, that's not all, friends,
35:37
Speaker 3: because a couple of other events I need to tell
35:39
Speaker 3: you about. The next one is on March the fourteenth,
35:42
Speaker 3: Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center will be
35:45
Speaker 3: hosting Georgia STEM Day, sponsored by the Georgia State Department
35:50
Speaker 3: of Education. It is a opportunity for students to meet
35:55
Speaker 3: representatives from both industry and academia to talk about career
35:59
Speaker 3: paths in science and technology, engineering, and mathematics. We will
36:02
Speaker 3: be hosting representatives from Pratt and Whitney, Keya Automotive, the
36:08
Speaker 3: smurf at Westbrock Paper Company, and a variety of others
36:12
Speaker 3: including Lego. By the way, Lego Corporate will be here
36:16
Speaker 3: talking about careers in science, engineering, technology, mathematics. And then
36:21
Speaker 3: we will also have many of our academic departments who
36:23
Speaker 3: train people to go into those careers on site. That
36:28
Speaker 3: event is free ninety five. In other words, it's free
36:32
Speaker 3: and open to the public that day. Friends. So if
36:35
Speaker 3: you have anyone in your sphere of influence who's a
36:38
Speaker 3: middle school, high school student thinking about trying to pursue
36:41
Speaker 3: science careers, this is a great day for them to
36:45
Speaker 3: come down and meet actual professionals in the field right
36:48
Speaker 3: here in the area who might be able to provide
36:51
Speaker 3: them job pathways. So make sure you join us on
36:54
Speaker 3: March fourteenth for Georgia STEM Day at Columbus State University's
36:58
Speaker 3: Coca Cola Space Science Center.
37:00
Speaker 4: All right, thank you for listening, and we will do
37:01
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