Latest / Made of Stars / SpaceX Has Been Very Busy... the Good Kind of Busy

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SpaceX Has Been Very Busy... the Good Kind of Busy · Made of Stars

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Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics, and
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space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been known to learn about astronomical
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phenomenon the scientific method, and expand to vocabulary to include terms like quasar asterism
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and uranus. Listen, that's your own risk. Go ahead. When made
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of stars, made them stars, madies. When made of stars, you
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could be from high they would New Mexicomus. Where are stars? When we
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are made of stars? I'm Wes Carol, joined by my good friend doctor
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Sean Cruising from Columbus State Universities Coca Cola Space Science Center. Hey Sean,
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Hey Wes. We are good friends. Man. We get to do this
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like hang out, talk about space, geek out about things we do,
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yes, and text each other and I'll like to send you pictures of the
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Moon and things like that. It's always fun, you know. And then
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I get messages from you, and then I have to share sad news like
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you know, helicopters dying on Mars and things like that. But yes,
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it's all just part of the friendship. You were, in fact the first
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place I heard that, So you know, there's certain moments where you learn
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certain things, and for us, that'll be one of those moments. I
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didn't realize I was sharing that. I thought I was just having a moment
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saying, oh, rest in peace. But little did I know I was
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breaking the news to you. We normally record the show on Thursdays. We're
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recording today on Wednesday. We'll still release it like normal. But it's worth
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mentioning just for the purposes of a couple of our news stories because it's a
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significant day for SpaceX. They've been pretty big. They have a lot of
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significant days now, and we've got a few pretty significant SpaceX stories to talk
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about today. So let's just start plowing through some of these things. I
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mean, and yes, we could have probably waited on some of these stories
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to the next week, but it kind of paints the picture of what an
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average day at SpaceX must be like. Right, So basically, the next
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five stories, and we're going to go through some of these pretty fast.
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But the next five stories are all about SpaceX, and the first one is
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SpaceX has launched a national security satellite mission for the US Space Force. Actually
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they're doing it today. It's scheduled for five thirty pm today, which is
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Valentine's Day, it's going to be launching you know, you know, barring
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any kind of last minute rocket nonsense, that happens sometime today. So that's
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a pretty big deal now already, if you're the I don't know CEO or
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you know, owner, operator or just an interested party in this company,
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that's already a pretty big day. Massive billion dollar military satellite and a launch
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on one of your rocket systems today. Okay, Plus it's Valentine's Day.
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You know who knows how that all plays out? Wait, it's Valentine's Day.
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Oh, I gotta go just kidding. I mean they were supposed to
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know launch it before, but then they had anyway, all right, So
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okay, there's one thing now. Also, SpaceX had to delay the launch
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yesterday of this mission called Intuitive Machines, which is sending a lander to the
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Moon. That's a pretty big deal. They had some kind of a methane
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fuel issue. They bumped it off until tomorrow. So that's now the next
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schedule launch a temp is going to be tomorrow, Thursday, February fifteenth.
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This is we're recording this on a Wednesday one five am, so that's basically
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in the overnight hours tonight, so you're launching at five thirty, then you're
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launching again at one am. All right, I mean that's packing it in
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there. It's just kind of a little bit of a busy day, right
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yeah, all right, So that's two stories. Here's the third one.
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SpaceX could be launching their giant Starship rocket again within three weeks, says Elon
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Musk, owner operator of the company. So I'm guessing there's some steps that
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have to be taken. And by the way, over the weekend, so
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they were somebody who was working Saturday and Sunday, they stacked up the SpaceX
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vehicle called Starship on top of the Falcon super heavy booster. The whole thing
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together is called Starship. But now there's a stack. They did that over
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the weekend. So now there's a fully stacked rocket that are just waiting for
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an FAA license, which could come honestly in sooner time than three weeks,
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because you never know about these commercial companies. They don't hold that true to
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their schedules. They could bump it up a little bit. So they have
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that going on this month. And then SpaceX also which just launched a whole
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lot of new starlink satellites into orbit. They're preparing to deorbit one hundred older
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Starlink satellites just to get them out of the way and basically quote, keep
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space safe and sustainable. Now, the issue with these one hundred older Starlink
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satellites they're going to deorbit is the fact that they're basically running out of fuel
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and could be out of control soon. So while they still have control of
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these older rockets that they know are reaching end of life, they want to
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go ahead and take steps to deorbit them while they're under control. The Starlinks
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they are small satellites, but they could still do a whole lot of damage
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depending on what they encountered out there with another satellite or another space vehicle.
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So they actually have obstacle avoidance or so they have onboard control systems that help
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them not run into other objects a ounter space. So they're going to be
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bringing them down in a certain window, and they're planning the all out,
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and they're letting all the other satellite operators know, including the Department of Defense.
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Hey, we're going to be bringing these satellites down. Any one of
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those things would be a big week, right, any one of those or
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a big month and that's busy stuff right. Oh and by the way,
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the Axiom three Freedom's spacecraft with four commercial astronauts just returned from the International Space
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Station and they splash down in the ocean off the coast of Florida and me
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think, well, what does that have to do with SpaceX. Well,
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they were on a SpaceX Dragon capsule, you see, So there's the cherry
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on top of the pie. While all those other things are going on,
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they're actually bringing human beings back from safe from space in a safe way.
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So these are all, you know, things that should require your attention.
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How about that? And when you get a lot of things going on that
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should all require your attention in a big way simultaneously. I mean, it's
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just a big week, right, It's just there's many things happening. So
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so there it is for SpaceX. And by the way, so on the
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on the crew Dragon, you had Commander Michael Lopez Oligria, former NASA,
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NASA astronaut and now the chief astronaut at Axiom Space Walter via Dai, who
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is an Italian astronaut, Alpers Gara Varchi, who's the citizen of Turkey,
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the first citizen of Turkey to go to space and Marcus vant, a European
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space agency astronaut, now turn commercial flying aboard Axiom's Freedom capsule. So whoa.
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I mean, if I had that on my day planner it's the next
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month, I would be stressed. It's pretty impressive. And I referenced this.
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It is kind of two stories because we have all of the original SpaceX
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only stories kind of grouped together and then obviously SpaceX and we have to get
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a little nod here to Axiom space as well in this because I mean this
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is the second of these two you know, private companies enjoying that success together
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with with that mission ending and wrapping up and those crew members back on Earth.
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Yeah. So it again it's a hat tip to Elon Musk and to
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SpaceX, right they you know, we we remember times when NASA's schedule was
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not nearly this busy, right Yeah, So NASA being a federal agency of
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the United States government with many, many more people employed by NASA than employed
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by SpaceX, not this busy for a single you know what six week period,
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shall we say? Because I didn't list off everything they've done for the
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last six weeks, by the way, because SpaceX launching now from the Florida
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coast. It's pretty much a weekly event, if not bi weekly, like
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they're launching twice a week, right, was that semi weekly? I don't
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know, I get those confused anyway, couple of times a week. So
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anyway, so the launch cadence for SpaceX is something that is extraordinarily impressive.
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Anyway, But then when you see this many really important events packed into this
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short of a space of time, you understand that that company has matured and
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evolved and is now on the in terms of the global space endeavor, maybe
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the major player. I mean, it's hard to say that NASA is not
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still a major player, because their dollars are going into a lot of these
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things. However, in terms of actually just getting it done and rubber meets
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the road carrying out the tasks SpaceX, my goodness, what an agenda they
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have. They had last year with the record setting number of launches last year,
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but now this year even more even more often, a higher launch cadence,
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many more projects going on. It's truly truly impressive. Well, and
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I'm glad you mentioned that, because we warned you this was going to be
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happening this year. They announced that they had plans to launch much more frequently
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and do and that's exactly what they've done. And obviously, as you point
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out, they're not just launches. Theirs significant launches, and that's the other
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thing that makes it impressive. Yeah, let's not forget exactly what you just
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said. Let's not forget that the launch of the starship vehicle, it seems
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like an ego project. Oh, Elon wants to launch a big rocket off
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the coast of Texas. Friends, please don't forget that. That's part of
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NASA's Artemis program. That is right now, the designated ride down to the
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surface of the Moon. For those astronauts who are going to be orbiting the
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Moon in the Orion capsule, they are slated to meet up and dock with
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Elon Musk and the starship. Well, I don't know if Elon will be
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on the starship, that would be hilarious by the way, but Elon Musk's
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SpaceX starship. They're slated to dock with that and ride starship from orbit around
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the Moon down to the lunar surface. So when we see he's launches taking
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place off the coast of Texas, Bocachica Texas and think, oh, it's
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an ego project, or well he's trying to show off the big rocket.
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Whatever. Remember, it's an important part of NASA's return to the Moon.
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So so that's another stressful but yet important yet key element to America space program.
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So so all of these pieces are just incredibly important, both from an
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economic standpoint as well as a space exploration standpoint. It's it's just incredible again,
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how many how many clubs are in the air at SpaceX at any given
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moment. That's a lot of them, all right. This next story from
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Universe today dot com. It's pretty cool and it's one of those things we've
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we talk a lot about, uh, search for life, search for liquid
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water, therefore, search for life in other parts of the universe. Really
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and we start thinking about we talk about the term Goldilock zone. We talk
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about, uh, you know that that perfect spot not too hot, not
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too cold, it's not overly common in the right size star. You've got
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a planet that's in the right place that it needs to be in. And
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this next study talks about the way that a changing star would cause that Goldilock
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zone to move in its solar system. This is a pretty neat study.
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Yes, So, based on what we see in our own Solar system,
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there's kind of a spatial ring shaped geographic region for lack of a better description,
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around our Sun, inside of which if a planet existed, we would
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expect temperatures and pressures could possibly be in that just right region to have liquid
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water on the surface of that planet. And as you mentioned, we call
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that the Goldilock zone, or we also call it from a scientific perspective,
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the habitable zone. Well, here's the thing, that habitable zone. We've
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been looking for planets in that habitable zone around other stars based on what we
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see as our own Solar system, using our own solar system as a model.
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But now as astronomers study dying stars, and those dying stars tend to
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expand, they tend to cool off on their surface, but they actually put
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off more light. They get cooler and more luminous as they move to what's
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called a red giant face. When stars change that way, the Goldilocks zone
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shifts. It can move farther out, and so planets that have have been
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farther away from the Sun not in a habitable zone, suddenly as that star
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goes into its death throws then suddenly the planet is receiving the proper amount of
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light and heat. Then it's now gonna melt all the ices on the surface
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and it can potentially harbor liquid water. Now, remember that a star can
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stay in its death rows for many hundreds of millions of years, So is
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that enough time for life to come to fruition on that planet? Well,
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a new study out of UPSIL, the University in Sweden suggests that yes,
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indeed, this would be enough time. There would be enough time on a
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frozen world outside a normal star that once it goes into the red giant phase,
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it could heat that planet up and keep it at the habitable zone temperatures
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and pressures for a long enough time that life could actually get started on that
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world. So it's a really interesting new study because as we are looking out
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there into our galaxy and trying to say where out there might we expect to
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find signs of other life, well in places that have liquid water on the
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surface. Because we're using our own life forms as a model. Okay,
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well where do those exist? Well, then we use our own solar system
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as a model, and we have the very restrictive zone. But wait for
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those stars reaching the other end of the lifetime, we have to look in
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a much broader area to look at a much wider belt, and that adds
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a whole list of new planets that are potentially life harboring planets that we need
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to study a little bit more carefully. So this is a really interesting study.
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And again, as Wes mentioned, it's on Universe today dot com.
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Go check out that article. Coming up after a quick break, we will
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talk about a temporary mini moon on Us, well orbiting Venus. We'll get
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into that right after this. Okay, so apparently Venus had a temporary mini
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moon. How does that work? And then it had a weird name to
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it? What is up with this name? Yeah, the story honestly,
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this story is more about the name than it is the mini moon. Although
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the idea of a min moon around Venus. If you asked me, you
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know, before I read this story, quite frankly, if Venus had a
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moon, I would say no. And now that I've read the story,
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if you ask me if Venus has a moon, I would still say no,
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because this isn't really a moon. It's it's being called a mini moon
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or a temporary mini moon, but really it's a trapped asteroid, and the
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asteroid is not trapped by Venus's gravity alone. It's trapped in the field but
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to the Sun. So it's kind of doing a motion near Venus and the
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Sun. That's a little bit like an orbit around Venus, but not really.
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Okay, So this was discovered back in November of two thousand and two
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by an astronomer by the name of Brian Skiff from the Lowell Observatory. By
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the way, lol Observatory has a place near and dear to my heart because
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I did much of my observing for many of my graduate projects at lowl Observatory,
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so I've been there many times. Brian Skiff's a research scientist at Lowell
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for almost fifty years, and in that time he's discovered all kinds of new
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what we call small bodies in the Solar System. Those are comets and asteroids.
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He's found more than a dozen asteroids and more than forty comets, and
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as a code discover and a name bearer on many of those objects. Okay,
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So so when he discovered yet another you know, new rock around in
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between the orbit of the Sun and Venus, it wasn't that big of a
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deal. And as as the Naming Convention would have it. It got named
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by a catalog label, which is two thousand and two VE sixty eight.
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Now you don't have to know all that means. It just it's a catalog
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reference, Okay, two thousand and two VE subscript sixty eight. Okay.
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So it's what's known as a quasi moon, and that fact was discovered very
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recently by a different group of astronomers who were able to pinpoint the fact that
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it does have this strange sympathetic orbit around both Venus and the Sun. So
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then this quasi moon status got announced, and there was an artist from the
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UK by the name of Alex Foster who just happened to be doing a poster
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for children about the Solar system. That was one of his projects he was
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working on. And so he saw this newly designated asteroid, this quasi moon
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around Venus called two thousand and two VE subscript sixty eight, and he dropped
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the subscript sixty eight and he put it on his poster for children, and
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he just put the letters in two thousand and two VE. Okay. Now
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imagine in your mind this is a radio show. Imagine just writing out two
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zero zero two ve in some kind of scripty font appropriate for a child's poster.
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Well, as that was written out, it looks like this. It
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looks like the letter z ooh z V zo zve spelling zooves V. Yes,
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all right, Enter a very famous podcaster by the name of Latif Nosser
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from a very popular science podcast called Radio Lab. They have heard this on
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National Public Radio other sources. Radio Lab a very well known podcast. Latif
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Nosser has this poster in his two year old son's bedroom, nice and he
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sees this little moon around Venus and says, I didn't know that Venus had
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a moon. And it's called zoos V. What the heck kind of name
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is zooms V? All right? Well, mister Nosser then pursued this got
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in touch with Brian Skiff and Lowell, and Brian Skiff's it. It's called
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what that's news to me. It's not been named anything. It's a catalog
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number two thousand and two V sixty eight. It doesn't really have a proper
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name because it's not really a moon. Oh, says Latif Nasser. Well,
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I'm looking at this poster by Alex Foster and he's got zoos V written
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on there. Oh no, I think what you're seeing is two thousand and
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two ve oh, but we all know it as zouvs V. So mister
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Nosser then mounted an effort, and it's quite an effort to name this asteroid,
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which is a quasi moon around Venus, to get it named by the
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International Astronomical Union, to change the name from the catalog number to the actual
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name zus V. Why the heck are we talking about this on our podcast,
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because friends, it just happened. The International Astronomical Union, on February
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fifth, twenty twenty four, has changed the name of the quasi moon mini
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asteroid two thousand and two ve dash sixty eight to zooms V. Nice.
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There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. It is the power of the
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press. It is the power of popular opinion, and it even overcame any
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kind of scientific logic because that should just not be the name of an asteroid,
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but it now is. So there you have it. Friends, Check
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out this story on Sky and Telescope dot org or Universe today dot com or
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many of your other favorite space websites, because they're all carrying it because it's
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such a bizarre story, sounds like we know the sounds like we now know
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the guy who could get Pluto back as a regular planet if he really put
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his mind to it. All right, let's talk about you're in the middle
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of it. We've been talking about this period of a couple of weeks where
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things are going to be really hectic for you guys, and you're kind of
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in the middle of that now, right. Yeah, we're pushing forward to
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a time where we're going to be installing our new planetarium system, so that's
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coming up in March. We'll be making announcements on this show and other places
21:48
about accommodating that. But we're going to have a brand new planetarium system in
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our Otmosphere Theater, which is super exciting. In the meantime, as Wes
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just mentioned, we have a lot of things going on here at Space Science
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Center. We just had a big event last Saturday at the River Center for
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the Performing Arts where we had all kinds of robot teams running around the Performing
22:07
Arts Center's main atrium and gallery because they're helping to promote through an activity,
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the upcoming motion picture event Metropolis. Now that is this Saturday, So if
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you're listening in the general vicinity, make sure, you go to the River
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Center on Saturday night, February seventeenth, starting at six point thirty, because
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all those kids are gonna be out there with their robots again, running robots
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around the atroom of the River Center. But then after that, you're going
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to get to see the classic science fiction film Metropolis nineteen twenty seven, and
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you're going to get to see it with all of the soundtrack. Wait a
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minute, it's a silent movie, yes, but soundtracks were played musically and
22:45
it actually has a score, so you're going to get to hear all of
22:47
that music played live on what's known as the Wave Organ, which is a
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semi digital organ, a fantastic instrument. It's going to be a great event
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that combines the arts and the sciences. Get your tickets, there are only
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ten dollars. Go see Metropolis on the big screen with the live music.
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It's going to be incredible. So that's all happening on February seventeenth, and
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we are co promoting that event with one of our own events, which is
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happening on February the twenty fifth. It's the Columbus Comic Book and Toy Show.
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That one will be happening right here at the Coca Cola Space Science Center,
23:22
and it turns out that that'll have a lot of well robot and sci
23:26
fi themed activities taking place with it too. So this is why we're co
23:30
promoting with the River Center. A lot of great fun happening here in the
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month of February twenty twenty four, and we're really excited to be able to
23:37
bring these kinds of events and activities to our friends within the Chattahoochee River Valley.
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And you guys have your full schedule for those events and others on your
23:45
website. You can visit us at www dot cc SSC dot org. If
23:52
you have trouble remembering that, so do I, So I just remember Charlie
23:56
Charlie SamSam Charlie dot org. Friends, and we thank you for listening to
24:00
the podcast and come see us in person because we have all kinds of new
24:03
artifacts that are now on display in our exhibit gallery. If you come here,
24:07
we'll tell you all about them, and that will do it for this
24:10
week's edition of the show. We do thank you for listening, and we'll
24:12
do this again next week. Overhead Door Company of Columbus has all of your
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