Latest / Made of Stars / Another Jellyfish In the Sky?

Transcript

Another Jellyfish In the Sky? · Made of Stars

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Warning, the following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: expand their vocabulary to include terms like quasar, asterism, and Uranus.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Listen at your own risk.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Go ahead. We're made of stars. Made of stars.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Made of stars.
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: We're made of stars.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: We really are.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: You could be from Hollywood, New Mexico or Mars.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: We're all made of stars.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: We are Made of Stars. I'm Wes Carroll, joined by
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: my good friend, Dr. Sean Cruzan. He's Executive Director at
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: Columbus State University's Coca-Cola Space Science Center. Hey, Sean.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Hey, Wes. It's a good day to be here, and
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: it's a good day to be hanging out at the
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Coca-Cola Space Science Center.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: I'm mad at you because I said, hey, you're going
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: to get a chance to see another rocket in the sky,
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: and you were like, thanks for the heads up. And
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: then I went that morning and Walked around looking for it,
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: and it was too low on the horizon. And I thought, well,
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: maybe we're just not getting the view of it that
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: we thought we might get. And then you start sending
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: me pictures.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: So, like, I was sure you were going to see it.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: You're the one that reminded me.
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: Well, I just didn't get the right perspective. And I don't,
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: like you, you're out in the country, out in whoop-whoop,
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: as the Australians would say. not, not me. And there
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: just were too many trees and houses and things. I
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: tried to get in the right perspective for it and
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: I just couldn't. And I thought, well, maybe it launched
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: too late for there to be a good view with
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: the sunrise happening. And cause it was a little bit
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: later than they had initially thought just by, you know,
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: 20 minutes or whatever it was. So anyway, I, I'm
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: just jealous. I'm glad you shared the photos and I'm
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: glad you got to see it. And I thought I
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: just needed to go get in the car is what
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: I should have done and found the best possible view
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: of the sky kind of to the Southeast, right? That's
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: where it was.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: And so I will tell you, honestly, that's exactly what
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: I did because I felt so silly and listen to
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: last week's podcast. I felt so silly that I missed
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: the last jellyfish when I really didn't miss the jellyfish.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I saw it in the sky and I'm going to
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: just admit this on our, on our podcast. Sometimes I'm
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: the dumbest quote unquote smart guy you'll ever see. Because
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I saw it and did not associate it with the
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: actual launch. I thought, wow, the moon really looks weird
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: behind that cloud when the moon wasn't even really in
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: the right phase to be even visible in the morning sky.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: I failed as an astronomer. I failed as a space scientist.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: And I was not going to repeat that. So this
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: time I actually got in my car and drove out
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: from the kind of wooded area where I lived, where
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: the previous jellyfish, I saw it kind of through the trees. No, no,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I went to an overlook of a horse farm where
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: there was lots of pastures and there was a very
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: low southeastern horizon so that I wasn't going to miss it.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: And I thought, well, even now, I don't know if
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: it's going to clear. I don't know. And then all
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: of a sudden, like this bright contrail looking object starts
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: just rising from the trees. And I tell my wife
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: who is blurry eyed and sipping coffee. No, no, this,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: I think we're going to see this. And then when
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: I saw that, I'm like, there it is. There it is.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: She's like, where? I said, the glowy thing. She says,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: what glowy thing? And then all of a sudden it
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: began to form its jellyfish cloud because of stage separation
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: taking place. And it was like, oh, that glowy thing. Yes,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: that glowy thing. So yeah, we saw it. It was
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: pretty cool. I will tell anybody if you're living somewhere
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: in the Southeast and you haven't bothered to go see
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: one of these, you should. And yeah, it has to
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: be on certain launch trajectories. It has to kind of
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: be going up the East Coast a bit. for us
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: to see it this far inland. But yeah, there's enough
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: web intel out there now that you can find out
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: ahead of time which missions are likely to be visible.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: And of course, just check your local weather, check your
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: southeastern horizon. It's pretty cool. It was a really neat
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: thing to see.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: Your photos were great. And being able to see the
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: booster as it started to make its way back down,
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: you had that captured in the photo, which was very cool.
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: And I was able to show that to Jill and
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: the boys and They were, uh, Jake had an early
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: morning that day at school. So that meant they both
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: had an early morning that day and they were both
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: kind of dragging. And they had told me like, if, if,
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: if you see, it seems like it's going to be
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: a reality, you gotta come wake us up. And I
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: thought they're not going to get up for this. I
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: can just, I could just feel it. They were not,
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: not feeling it. Uh, Jake might've, uh, Luke was kind
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: of struggling. He's been sick. So anyway. Uh, when I
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: showed him the pictures, I just was like, I cannot
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: believe I did not get in the car. I just,
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: I thought I had a spot where I was going
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: to be able to see close enough to the horizon
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: and I was wrong and I missed it. And I
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: was kicking myself. Cause again, there were the photos. So,
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: and then now we're about to have the time change
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: was going to make it a little bit harder, you know?
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: So it's like, ah, maybe next year.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Wow. I mean, I doubt that this would be your
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: last opportunity. I will tell you this. It makes me
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: want to go see one in person.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: We're long overdue. When I say in person, I mean
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: from Kennedy, like from the greater Titusville, Florida area. It
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: makes me want to get that close because, you know,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: seeing it small and low on the distant horizon is really,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: really cool. What would that look like? And, of course,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: all the people in Florida are like, yeah, I know.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: We see them all the time.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: All the time.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: We call that Tuesday and Thursday down here.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: So it's like, yeah, no, I get it. They're, they're
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: launching a lot down there, but, but I really do
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: want to see one a lot closer up.
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah. We're long overdue that. Well, it was a cool
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: thing for those who got to see it and the
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: images of course were cool, but the actual mission for
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: this launch, the bandwagon five also kind of cool stuff here.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: This is not just some big 4th of July fireworks
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: celebration in the sky. There's actually a mission attached to this?
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: Let me tell you this. There's a lot of people,
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: and they surprise you sometimes when they tell you, like, oh,
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: it's just these rich people shooting up rockets. And they
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: have no idea that there's cargo that's important and that
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: does things. It's the people who watch the cool Tesla
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: Roadster flying car video and went, that's not really flying.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: It's like, well, tell the Wright brothers that first flight
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: wasn't a real flight. Why don't we do that? It's
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: the beginning of something is what it is. And I'm sorry,
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: but I watched a car drive at a long row
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: of cars and fly in the air and land on
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: the other side of the cars. That's flying. I don't
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: care what you say. No, it wasn't the Jetsons and
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: it wasn't that. I get it, but- We got to
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: see a car fly. But anyway, those are the people
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: that I'm talking about that are going, these are just
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: rich people shooting up rockets.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was under controlled thrust. How was that
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: not flying?
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: And did they miss the part where it drove upside
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: down and sat there because of suction? And I didn't
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: even understand what we were talking about with that. And
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: then it just went back down and went back up again.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: And then it came off and flipped over.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: And I.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Again, under controlled thrust.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: Like not just randomly flipped over because it was high
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: in the air and got dropped. No, it, this is,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: that's what your dog does. No, this is more like
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: your cat, you know, like it landed on his feet,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: you know, like it had some cats don't fly anyway.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: So it was just, just, A different argument entirely. I
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: don't know why I made that point.
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: I mean, think back to the.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: It's vectored thrust. And so vectored thrust is a form
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: of flight. Who said this? We need to talk to them.
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: Oh, there's a lot. There's a lot of people that
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: are like, no, no, no. It was gliding. I saw
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: a video where a guy.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Was comparing it.
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: It was comparing it to the scene in Toy Story
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: when Buzz is just kind of gliding because he's not.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Falling with style.
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: That's right. And that's what they were saying. They're, oh, no,
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: this is that. And, you know, think back to the 80s.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: Think Smokey and the Bandit and Dukes of Hazzard when
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: they would crash all these cars making them jump. This
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: thing did the jump, landed, and kept driving. The wheels
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: didn't smash. It's not like all the axles popped and
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: it was just a piece of junk when it landed. No,
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: it flew, it landed, and then it drove away.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: And I think I heard the phrase meant to do that.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: Meant to do that.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Meant to. Yeah.
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: All of those things. So anyway, uh, back to bandwagon because, uh, yeah,
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: this is, uh, this is a pretty cool mission. And,
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: you know, it was one of those things when I
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: saw this on the list of missions that could be visible,
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: I was like, I need to know what bandwagon five is.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: So I started reading up on it.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Bandwagon five had a whole bunch of missions aboard 32
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: customer payloads on board. We are not going to go
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: through all of those here. If you want to know
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: more about that, go look up bandwagon five. It's a
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: really cool thing that 32 different customer payloads could get
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: flown on one, on one SpaceX launch that gave us
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: a great jellyfish here in the, uh, the West Georgia region.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: All right. So, spaceflight.com, spaceflightnow.com, where we get in our article.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: I want to tell you about one that's really, really cool.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: And the one that's really, really cool is actually from
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: SpaceX themselves. It's called Starfall. And Starfall is a really
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: neat experiment designed to, well, be its own space vehicle,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: but then also be able to help de-orbit other space vehicles,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: all a really interesting proposition. Starfall from SpaceX, a quote
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: from Zachary Lupin, who is the avionics supply chain engineer
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: at SpaceX, says this, quote, it's a microgravity lab researchers
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: and entrepreneurs can leverage to develop their products and innovations, unquote.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: So in other words, without getting your experiments aboard the
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: International Space Station, which that's always great, but they have
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: a limited capacity. Here is another option. If a company
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: wants to do or try various products or innovations in
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: a microgravity environment, they can have SpaceX fly it up
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: aboard the Starfall vehicle. Zachary Lupin goes on to say, quote,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: as we have seen demonstrated on the International Space Station,
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: there is a huge opportunity to benefit life here on
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Earth through microgravity research in space. and in-space manufacturing, unquote. Yeah,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: I read that quote badly, but you get the idea. Anyway,
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: so another vehicle that was also on board the 32
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: customer payload bandwagon five mission was from a company called
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Varda Space. And it was the W7 or W series
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: seven spacecraft. And they are taking advantage of doing some
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: research in the microgravity environment, but they have a different
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: kind of payload. they actually have cancer drugs on board
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: that they are investigating, changing their properties and making them
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: more effective because of assembling their components in the microgravity environment.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: So a statement from Varda's website says this, quote, in microgravity,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: molecules can crystallize differently than they do on earth, potentially
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: producing crystal forms with improved properties that including better solubility.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: The quote goes on to say, quote, if successful, the
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: experiment could help turn powerful protein degrading molecules into more
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: practical and effective cancer treatments, unquote. So yeah, it's glowing
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: jellyfish clouds in the morning sky. It's vector-thrusted controlled flying cars.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: It's all of those things that SpaceX and Elon are
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: out there doing, but it's also making access to space
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: for a far larger group of entrepreneurs and companies to
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: investigate manufacturing and developing their products in a microgravity environment
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: for the betterment of human beings. So that is exactly
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: what we're talking about. The Bandwagon 5 provided that kind
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: of access for 32 different customer payloads. Starfall and the
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: W7 are only two of those. There are 30 other
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: ones that were on board. Go out and check out
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: all of that research taking place. Making space accessible for
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: companies to better conditions for humanity is really what SpaceX did.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: is providing us a service with their vehicles.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: More Made of Stars right after this.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: We're Made of Stars.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: We talk about strained acronyms when it comes to NASA,
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: and NASA is getting ready to wrap up our favorite
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: of all of the acronyms. I think the least strained
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: of all of them. This is the best name for
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: a mission ever. They're ready to close the book on OSIRIS-REx.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're going to strain an acronym, make sure
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: you make it into something that sounds cool. They did
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: that mission reason for, we're not even going to say
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: what the strained acronym is. Go look it up. But
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: it'll Cyrus Rex.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Is an amazing name for a space vehicle.
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: Sounds like something that they made in Jurassic park, you know,
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: and it got out of control again and started terrorizing
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: all the people. And then you got to get in
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: Chris Pratt or whoever. Uh, but no, that's not what
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: this is. It's all about asteroids.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Timmy, have you fed your Osiris Rex this morning? No,
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: I forgot. Well, I think he ate the cat. Yeah,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: something like that. Anyway, OSIRIS-REx was the first U.S. mission
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: to collect a sample from an asteroid and return it
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: to the Earth. A sample return mission to an asteroid.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: It launched back in September of 2016. We actually had
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: a team of Earth and Space Sciences students from Columbus
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: State University on site for that launch. And we were
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: webcasting it with our staff member, Michael Johnson, here at
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Space Science Center. And several of our students have gone
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: on to have pretty cool careers, actually, out there. And
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: out there, when I said out there, I meant in
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: the work environment, ladies and gentlemen. That's called workforce development.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: We like to do that here at Columbus State University.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: All right. So the spacecraft itself visited the near-Earth asteroid
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: called Bennu. It collected rock and dust samples in October
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: of 2020. We were all home watching that during the pandemic.
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: That was cool.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Anyway, so then it delivered the capsule safely back to Utah,
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: September the 24th of 2023. And we have been studying
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: the materials delivered back. When I say we, I mean
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: here in America, our space science researchers have been studying
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: that material delivered back from that asteroid ever since. Okay,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: so why is that important? Well, because asteroid Bennu is
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: actually an ancient space rock which is holding pristine remnants
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: from the dawn of our solar system more than 4.5
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: billion years ago. If you like that wording, if it
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: sounded romantic, give credit to space.com because that's where the
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: story came from today. I'm simply reading that cool line
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: because that was well-worded. Anyway, so the point is it's
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: like a time capsule from the formation of the solar system.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: And when we can bring these primordial materials back to Earth,
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: we have a better understanding of how our solar system formed,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: what materials it formed from in the first place, and
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: basically how stars and planets form in general throughout the
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Milky Way and other galaxies. All right, so that's pretty cool.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: So among these cosmic relics collected from OSIRIS-REx were raw
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: organic building blocks, the kinds of materials necessary for life
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: on a weird planet like Earth to get going in
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: the first place. So other than that, nothing really important.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Just that.
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: No big deal.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: So Osiris, Osiris Rex principal investigator who has his own
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: cool name is Dante Loretta. Dante Loretta came out in
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: a statement from the university of Arizona saying this quote,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: I have known this day was coming for a long time,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: but it's difficult to see it arrive. I feel enormous
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: pride in what we've accomplished together and real sadness that
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: this journey has come to an end. You see what
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: happened is that NASA just came out and announced the
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: official end of the OSIRIS-REx mission. Now, that doesn't mean
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: we don't still have those materials that were collected from
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: that asteroid. That doesn't mean that the materials are going
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: to go away. We're still going to be doing research,
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: we as human beings, doing research on that for quite
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: some time. That doesn't mean that the spacecraft is no
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: longer functioning. It's still out there going. In fact, they
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: transitioned the mission to something called Osiris Apex.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: That's what happens when it gets out of the cage.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: If it's an apex predator like Osiris Rex, then it
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: can turn into Osiris Apex. Don't feed it after midnight
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: or something. I don't know. I don't know what happens here. Anyway,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: so literally the spacecraft, flew by the Earth at a
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: high rate of speed. It chucked a canister at us.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: As it was flying by, it just threw a canister
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: at us. That canister happened to be filled with asteroid material.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: That's what came in in September of 23, and we're
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: studying that. But then the spacecraft went zipping off past
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: the Earth, in fact, using the gravitational force of the
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Earth to do a redirect at that time, and head
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: out to another potentially hazardous asteroid named Opophis. And in fact, Opaphos, well,
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: it has an appointment with the Earth already. It's coming
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: by the Earth very close, actually, on Friday the 13th.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: No kidding. Friday the 13th of the year 2029. It's
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: in April, by the way, April 13th. Friday the 13th
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: of April 2029. It's going to make a close approach
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: by the Earth of a mere 20,000 miles. Now, that's...
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: You're talking about less than 10% of the distance from
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: the Earth to the moon. So in cosmic terms, that
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: is really close. Now, NASA has done calculations. They do
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: not believe that at that time, opophis is a collision
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: risk with the earth so they're saying well this will
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: be a safe flyby okay but if it's safe that
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: time it might not be safe on future flybys of
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: the earth because it is a is an asteroid that
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: crosses paths with the earth uh to a very close
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: distance And it could do that again in the future.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: And depending on gravitational variabilities, it might change its trajectory
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: enough to hit the earth sometime in the not too
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: distant future. So we would really like to know what
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: this thing is made out of. Well, the Osiris apex,
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: the same spacecraft that used to be Osiris Rex is
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: flying out toward that asteroid. It's going to do studies
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: of the asteroid before it makes the close pass. And
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: then it's going to arrive at the asteroid in near
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: proximity to that asteroid and shortly after the asteroid passes
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: the Earth in April of 2029. So this is all
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: an unfolding drama. It's certainly not the end of the vehicle.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: It's certainly not the end of the samples the vehicle
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: brought back from Bennu. But it is the end of
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: the official mission, OSIRIS-REx, and the transition fully to OSIRIS-APEX.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: So there it is, friends. Check that story out on space.com.
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: We don't spend enough time... I think as a planet,
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: I know in science it happens, but we don't spend
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: enough time, I think, as a planet talking about the
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: moons of Mars. They're there. We just don't talk about them.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: And even on this show, we rarely bring them up.
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: And I think it's great when we get an opportunity
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: to talk about them. And thanks to, you know, Japan,
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: we get a chance to talk about one of them today.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So we talk about missions that go to Mars,
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: and we want to study Mars because Mars is an
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: interesting planet. It has a lot of Earth-like features. It
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: probably had water on its surface in its past. It
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: may have even been a location where other life in
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: our solar system once existed. So we talk a lot
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: about going to Mars, but we rarely talk about going
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: to the moons of Mars, as Wes just pointed out.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: And one of those moons... is an interesting moon called Phobos. Now,
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: let's remember Mars has two moons. Neither one of them
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: are spherical. They're both kind of potato-shaped. Not symmetric, in
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: other words. Not actually symmetric. They look like malformed asteroids.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: And that's probably because they are malformed asteroids that were
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: captured sometime in the past by the planet Mars with
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: its gravitational attraction.
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: You had me at potato-shaped.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: It is close to lunch. I'm kind of hungry. Why
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: am I suddenly hungry?
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: You had me at potato.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Can we turn phobos into french fries? This is what
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: we need to know. Julianne.
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: Looking over at my dog over here, curled up, and
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: he's definitely in full potato mode right now.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Various interpretations of potato. Yeah. Anyway, so. The country of
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Japan and its space program have decided to send a
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: vehicle directly to Phobos to say, is it really a
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: captured asteroid? That's kind of what we think. Or could
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: it have been part of the formation of the planet Mars?
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: What kind of distinctive materials do we find on the
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: surface of that moon? We don't know the answers to
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: all these questions. So a mission that would actually go
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: out to the moon would be a first. We haven't
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: ever sent one to a Mars moon yet. And so also,
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: what if it could actually do the same kind of
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: thing that Osiris-Rex did, take a sample of that moon
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: and throw it back to the Earth so we can
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: get actual materials into a lab here on the Earth
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: and study those materials? That's exactly what it's going to do, friends.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: The mission is called Martian Moon Exploration, MMX, Martian Moons Exploration, plural.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: will be the first spacecraft to both land on the
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: red planet's moon Phobos and return a sample of that
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: moon to the Earth for study. The MMX mission has launched.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: It launched on its way to Mars. It is now
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: flying up to Mars as of the recording of this show.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: It's been a couple of days now since that took place.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: It launched on an H-3 rocket. It lifted off from
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: the Tangashima Space Center in Japan, and it's on its way.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: So the JAXA, which is the Japanese Space Agency, has
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: confirmed that the spacecraft has separated from the rocket and
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: is on the correct planetary trajectory to get it out
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: to Mars and its moon. So JAXA's MMX mission is
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: on its way. It's on its way successfully. It will
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: spend three years studying the Martian moon, before landing to
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: collect the soil sample. That'll be the last thing that
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: it does. And the folks in Japan are pretty happy
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: about it. Kawakatsu Yasuhiro, who is a program manager with MMX,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: said this, quote, the Martian moon Phobos remains an unexplored
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: frontier for humankind. By bringing home samples from Phobos, we
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: hope to explore how the Martian moons were formed, how
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: the Martian sphere evolved. That's just kind of the neighborhood
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: of Mars, by the way. and how the water and
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: organic materials found on the terrestrial planets originated, unquote. Check
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: out the story in astronomy.com. The probe should reach Mars
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: by August of 2027. And if all goes well, its
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: phobos samples will come back to Earth in Australia. They'll
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: come in down under in the year 2031.
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: Searching for Vegemite after all of that mission. Looking for
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: Vegemite and Koalas.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: What if Vegemite was found on the moon, Phobos? What
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: if Vegemite was somehow already there? That would make headlines,
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: You know what? It's an acquired taste. I've acquired a
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: taste for it. I enjoy it now. I actually had
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: Vegemite toast not too long ago for breakfast. But I
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: can tell you just for the perspective of most people
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: who try it for the first time and put way
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: too much on whatever they're eating. There's probably things on
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: Phobos that taste like Vegemite. Just saying.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: So how close is it to avocado toast? I've wondered this.
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: Vegemite and avocado toast, even with just a little bit
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: of sharp cheese, and you're there. It's good. So we'll
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: have to make that happen for you.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Once again, I'm hungry. I don't know why.
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: Get a proper sampling of it. More Made of Stars
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: right after this. let's talk about the uh sky because
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: we have had some interesting things to see in the
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: sky for a couple days and i guess we got
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: a little bit more of it to come.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: I hope you're one of the listeners to the show
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: that just tunes right in like you don't wait for
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: a week you don't wait for a month Like, the
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: day it drops, you're there, and the little bell rings,
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: and you're listening. If you're not one of those listeners,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: why aren't you one of those listeners?
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: And I'm going to be honest. I mean, it's like
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: one of those deals where you go, all right, would
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: you listen, like, the day that we release it if
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: we won podcast of the year? And you go, yeah,
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: I'd do that.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: Well, then, all right.
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: Well, what if we did it twice? Would you definitely—
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: Would you definitely do that if we were the pod?
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: And not just like in the subcategory. We're not like
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: the best space podcast of the year. No, no, no, no.
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: Best podcast of the year. Which also makes us the
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: best space podcast of the year, just to point that out.
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: But anyway, my point is.
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: What would it take to get you to listen the
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: day we release it?
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Friends, there are only 50 states, and we are the
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: best podcast in one of those.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: I mean— We're likely to be the best podcast in others.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: We just have no way of knowing.
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's very true. And someone in another state voted
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: for us to be the best podcast. That's where the
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: voting was done. So I would think that means in
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: two states.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: This is sort of an interstate recognition, I would think.
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: We don't even know what the other state is that voted.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: We just know that people in another state said we
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: were the best podcast in this state. I think that
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: means like a 25th of the country thinks we're the best.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: Whatever state that was, thank you to the other state.
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: We'd like to just extend our thanks. So, all right. So,
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: that conversation should get you to click the little notify
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: me button.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: Right there. That's right.
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: Just set it up to download and we're good. That's
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: all you got to do.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: We're good. There you go. It's like a tech thing.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: Anyway, so....
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: So here's why we wanted to tell you all that.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: Because if you're listening real time, you're going to know
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: that today, this morning, in fact, I already missed it,
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: kind of. But the 22nd of October is the peak
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: of the Orionid meteor shower. Now, if you're saying, well,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: why are you telling us all that? We've already missed it.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Because peaks can kind of spread out over a few days.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: That means tomorrow morning, you have not missed it. So
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: get up early on the morning of Friday, October 23rd.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Go outside in the early morning hours. First of all,
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: you're going to see both the planets Mars and Jupiter
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: hanging out in the southeastern sky. That's well worth it.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: You're going to see the bright and beautiful constellation of
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: orion the hunter along with the pleiades star cluster taurus
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: the bull sirius the brightest star in all of the
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: nighttime sky all of these things hanging out in the
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: morning sky If there's a SpaceX launch, you could see
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: a jellyfish, but I don't think there's one happening. Come on, man.
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: You're just messing with me now. Don't do that.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Don't look for that. But here's the thing. The Orionid
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: meteor shower, Orionid, Orion the constellation, Orionid means they kind
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: of look as if they're coming from that constellation. So
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: look to the southern sky. Get to whether it's clear
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: in the south, and you might see debris from Halley's Comet,
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: the Comet Halley. streaking through our nighttime sky or early
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: morning sky, hitting the atmosphere at more than 148,000 miles
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: per hour, vaporizing high in the atmosphere and causing streaks
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: of light to appear above all of those already in place,
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: gorgeous sky objects. What are you doing in bed? Get up.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: This is, this is a reason, right? Get it, get
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: out there and enjoy the beautiful fall air that we're
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: having right now here in the West Central Georgia region,
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: and go out and see the beautiful nighttime sky. If
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: you want more information about the appearance of the Orionid
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: meteor shower, hey, why not check out spaceweather.com, one of
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: our very favorite websites, spaceweather.com. See the story all about
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: the Orionid meteor shower.
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: You mentioned the fact that this will still be going
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: on tomorrow morning, the 23rd. And then on the 24th,
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: maybe that morning as well, but later in the day
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: when the sun's up and everything, that's when Galacticon takes
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: place at Columbus State University's Coca-Cola Space Science Center.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: If you happen to get up early Saturday morning to
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: see objects streaking across the nighttime sky, you're our kind
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: of person.
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: You're just nerdy enough for Galacticon.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: You are absolutely in that category where Galacticon is going
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: to be a good time. Galacticon is our comic book,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: toy show, special hobby interests of sci-fi and fantasy nature,
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: come down and check out Galacticon. There are all kinds
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: of things going on. Too many for me to just
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: sit here and list, just like talk through, blah, blah, blah.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: So if this is the genre of kind of thing
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: that you're interested in, it's certainly a different kind of
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: event and different kind of reason to come down and
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: visit the Space Science Center than our normal fair. So
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: check it out at our website. Go visit www.ccssc.org. Charlie, Charlie, Sam, Sam, Charlie.org. CCSSC.org. See,
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: it's our initials. That's the thing, right?
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: That's right. But if I say Coca-Cola Space Science Center,
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: for some reason it's been my experience over the past
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: 30 years that people just clog on that. They stick.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: It sticks in their head. They can't go, wait, a
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: C and an S and a– Okay, Charlie Charlie, Sam
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Sam Charlie, CCSSC.org.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Check it out.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: And by the way, you can find out all the
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: information about Galacticon, but also about the upcoming Music Under
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: the Dome concert on Tuesday, November 3rd. You can check
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: out that. And by the way, there might even be
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: a groundbreaking ceremony taking place for the new Coca-Cola Space
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Science Center. That's going to be happening on the Columbus
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: State University campus on November 4th. at 2.30 in the afternoon.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: So all of these things coming in a very exciting week.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: We'll be breaking ground for the new Peashold Center for
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Emergent Technologies, which is a building that we're going to
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: be inside. So we're going to be habitating in that space.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: We will have more exhibits, more space, and more adventure
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: for you to experience in the new facility. Groundbreaking on
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: the 4th move-in date, 2028. It's going to be exciting.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: It's going to be great. I made a poem.
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: There it is.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: Check it all out, friends, www.ccssc.org.
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: Sean and I thank you for listening, and we'll do
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: this again next week.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: When it starts, we really are.
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: Overhead Door Company of Columbus has all of your garage
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: door needs covered, residential and commercial, service and repairs. If
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: you need a new garage door or you're just looking
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: to upgrade or repair your current door, Overhead Door Company
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: of Columbus has you covered. Plus, they've got your emergency
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: repairs or service covered as well. 706-358-4500, 706-358-4500, odccolumbus.com.