AS02E08: 600th Person in Orbit: Celebrating a Milestone in Space Exploration

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome again to Astronomy Daily. I'm Steve Dunkley, your host. It is the 22nd of May, 2023. Today we'll be looking at the 600th Person in Orbit, another way to measure the expansion of the universe, and a launch from New Zealand of all places.

[00:00:18] 20 days of Podcast with your host Steve Dunkley. Yes, that's right. There's been some big happenings in the sky and on launchpads and in the space industry all over the world today, but especially in New Zealand they've sent a few bits and pieces into

[00:00:37] Orbit. Oh well they were going to anyway. We'll get to that later. But would you welcome my fabulous digital sleuth Halley? Thank you for joining us again Halley. Hi again my favorite human. Of course it's not the New Zealand launch that's got everybody's attention today is it?

[00:00:54] Everyone is talking about the launch today. That's right the 600th Person into Orbit that's a new milestone. That's funny in Australia you still say milestone when you use the metric system. I know it's just old habits, but this is an exciting event. It sure is Halley.

[00:01:12] Humanity is inching its way into space. Not centimetering? There's no such thing Steve. Don't be silly. Okay I'll try to be sensible from now on. What have you got for us?

[00:01:24] Okay time for the short takes. As stars up to eight times heavier than our sun start to run out of nuclear fuel in their core they puff off their outer layers. This process gives rise to

[00:01:44] the colorful clouds of gas misleadingly known as planetary nebulae and leaves behind a dense compact hot core known as a white dwarf. Our own sun will undergo this transition in five billion

[00:01:56] years or so then slowly cool and fade away. However if a white dwarf somehow puts on weight a self-destruct mechanism kicks in when it gets heavier than about 1.4 times the mass of our sun. The subsequent thermonuclear detonation destroys the star in a distinctive kind of

[00:02:15] explosion called the Type IA supernova. But where would the extra mass come from to fuel such a bang? We used to think it could be gas being stripped off a bigger companion star in a close orbit. But stars tend to be messy eaters spilling gas everywhere.

[00:02:34] Supernova 2020 IJ was discovered by a telescope in Hawaii on March 23rd, 2020. For the first seven weeks or so it behaved in much the same way as any other Type IA supernova. But for the next five months it stopped fading in brightness. It also began to show features

[00:02:54] indicating gas that was unusually rich in helium. Astronomers began to suspect Supernova 2020 IJ belonged to a rare subclass of Type IA supernovae in which the blast wave moving at more than 10,000 km per second sweeps past gas that could only have been stripped off the outer layers of a

[00:03:14] surviving companion star. One of the more remarkable properties of Type IA supernovae is that they all seem to reach pretty much the same peak brightness. This is consistent with them all having reached a similar critical mass before exploding. This very attribute allowed astronomer Brian Schmitt

[00:03:33] and colleagues to reach their Nobel Prize winning conclusion in the late 1990s that the universe's expansion since the Big Bang is not slowing down under gravity as everyone had expected, but is accelerating due to the effects of what we now call dark energy.

[00:03:50] So, Type IA supernovae are important cosmic objects and the fact we still don't know exactly how and when these stellar explosions occur or what makes them so consistent has been a worry to astronomers. Our hypothesis and radio confirmation that

[00:04:07] Supernova 2020 IJ occurred when enough helium gas was stripped off the companion star and onto the surface of the white dwarf to push it just over the mass limit provides a natural explanation for this consistency. A new pair of NASA weather

[00:04:25] satellites was scheduled for launch today but according to Rocket Lab's Twitter page, the mission which is called Coming to a Storm Near You has been delayed by, you guessed it, a storm. The company is now looking at May 25th as a proposed launch date.

[00:04:42] The numbers 5 and 6 tropic satellites are part of a constellation of extreme weather observatories also known as CubeSats because of their small size and low weight. This launch will send two more tropic satellites to join two previously launched Sats. NASA chose Rocket Lab, a company

[00:05:01] that launches from New Zealand for the missions. The launch site makes it possible to achieve low earth orbital paths for the majority of missions the satellite industry needs. NASA's main goal is to keep an eye on the formation of sudden weather phenomena,

[00:05:18] mainly hurricanes and cyclones to improve forecasts given the severe impact they can have on the regions they hit. Each tropic satellite carries a high performance radiometer monitor that scans across the satellite track at 30 revolutions per minute. This observing system provides a combination of horizontal resolution related to time

[00:05:40] while measuring environmental conditions in the cores of tropical cyclones in a nearly global scale. According to company officials, operating a private orbital launch site alongside its own range and mission control centers helps Rocket Lab to contain mission costs,

[00:05:58] which makes affordable and effective launch services. Two years after awarding Elon Musk's SpaceX a contract to ferry astronauts to the surface of the moon, NASA on Friday announced it had chosen Blue Origin, a rival space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.

[00:06:17] To build a second lunar lander, Blue Origin's lander was selected for the Artemis 5 mission. Currently scheduled to take place in 2029. The company will first have to demonstrate it can safely land on the moon without a crew. The contract amounts to $3.4 billion, but John Calouris,

[00:06:37] Vice President in charge of lunar transport at Blue Origin, said during a press conference that the company would itself contribute well north of that amount to develop the craft. The Artemis program marks NASA's return to the moon after more than 50 years and is made up of

[00:06:54] several missions, each with increasing complexity. In 2021, the US agency chose SpaceX to build a lander for Artemis 3, the first mission in the series to have actual astronauts set foot on the lunar surface. Blue Origin had also competed for the first contract and filed an unsuccessful

[00:07:15] lawsuit against NASA when SpaceX was chosen as the sole lander provider. Blue Origin's lander, dubbed Blue Moon, is being developed with several partner companies, including Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic, Honeybee Robotics and Lockheed Martin. The latter will be responsible for

[00:07:35] developing a crucial element. Once in lunar orbit, Blue Moon will need to be refueled before it can descend and collect the astronauts from the surface of the moon. Therefore, Lockheed Martin

[00:07:48] has to develop a kind of shuttle to refuel Blue Moon around the moon. And that's all I have at the moment. Back to you Steve. Wow, doesn't that development of the Artemis mission sound exciting with refueling craft orbiting the moon? It sounds fantastic that science fiction

[00:08:12] becoming science fact. I can't wait to see some of those things unfold. Very exciting. Well, the big story at the moment is the 600th person to enter Earth orbit is now on her way to the International Space Station. In fact, at about one o'clock this afternoon,

[00:08:28] Eastern Australia time, she would have docked with the ISS. Reina Benawi on Sunday that was yesterday for us here in Australia, lifted off with fellow Saudi Space Commission astronaut Ali Al-Khani, sorry about my pronunciation folks, privately funded astronaut John Shofner of Tennessee

[00:08:49] and former astronaut Peggy Whitson on the second mission organized by Houston based space services company Axiom Space. The four Axiom 2 crewmates launched at 537 Eastern Daylight Time on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft Freedom atop a Falcon 9 rocket from 39A pad

[00:09:12] from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Less than nine minutes later, Benawi and her crewmates began circling the planet. Al-Khani and Shofner are first time flyers but based on a precedent set in 2021 when the 600th person entered space, a figure that also included suborbital

[00:09:29] flights, the count is based on the astronauts mission designations. As pilot, Shofner became number 598 Al-Khani is number 599, flying as mission specialist one. As such, Benawi as mission specialist two claimed the round number and with Benawi only 72 women helped comprise the

[00:09:50] 600th person total. I feel incredibly humble to follow in the footsteps of many astronauts and pioneers before me. Benawi said in a statement, as the 600th person to enter orbit around the earth I'm excited to represent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi space commission during this

[00:10:07] historic mission. It's a true honor to be a part of the mission that is expanding access to low earth orbit for people like me and you who are to be able to inspire people around the world

[00:10:18] and reach for the stars and pursue their dreams. Benawi is now the first Saudi woman to fly in space and the first Arab woman into earth orbit with Al-Khani, the first Arabs and Saudis to

[00:10:31] launch together on the same mission. The first Saudi and Arab astronaut to fly, Sultan bin Salman Al Saud did so as payload specialist for the space shuttle Discovery in 1985 all that time ago. Once they arrive at the ISS which is expected to, well it happened at one o'clock

[00:10:52] daylight time here in eastern Australia. Benawi and Al-Khani will be greeted by the station's Expedition 69 crew including Emirati astronauts Al Sultan Al-Nayadi marking the first time three astronauts have been in space at the same time. Benadi 33 Al-Khani 31 and not the only

[00:11:15] record setters on the AX crew, Shafna 67 is the first person who have been born in Alaska Fairbanks to fly into space. So I think it's a very odd sort of thing to say because somebody from

[00:11:25] my town went into space they would also be the first person from my town to be in space. Don't you think that's odd? No. Peggy Whitson as a former NASA astronaut already holds the distinction as the most experienced American and woman to fly into space having previously

[00:11:42] logged more than 665 days on three long duration stays aboard the ISS. She will add to that count on this mission which is expected to last about a whole 10 days. Whitson 63 is now also the first woman to command a commercial spaceflight. She joined Axiom Space after retiring from NASA

[00:12:03] in 2018 becoming the company's director of human spaceflight. Whitson is the second former NASA astronaut to fly for Axiom following Michael Lopez Allegria on Axiom 1 in 2022 and the third NASA astronaut to return to space after leaving the agency following John Glenn in 1988. Isn't that

[00:12:24] interesting? During the next week at the space station Whitson will assist Shafna, Al-Khani and Benawi proceed through their planned science and outreach programs. The AX2 crew plans to conduct more than 20 different experiments including research into stem cells, DNA based

[00:12:42] nanomaterials and cancer countermeasures. They will also photograph lightning strikes and high altitude transient luminous events known as sprites and test a wearable skin suit that simulates Earth's gravity to counteract the negative effects of microgravity. As you know

[00:12:59] the human body does not like living in no gravity it tends to shed things like calcium and other things and it's not very happy in zero gravity so it'll be interesting to see how that

[00:13:13] works out. Shafna, a race car driver who has aspired to fly in space since his childhood will use part of his time to announce the winners get this of a Crayola sponsored art and poetry contest

[00:13:26] that was open to children from around the world. Al-Khani and Benawi will interact with students in Saudi Arabia with the goal of inspiring an interest in science technology engineering and mathematics education. We're going to be doing three education awareness experiments

[00:13:42] with kids said Al-Khani during a pre-launch press conference it's going to be a live event which is going to be amazing for them because it's going to be a huge opportunity to compare the results

[00:13:54] that they had on the ground with the ones we are going to have aboard the ISS now that is going to be interesting. Al-Khani and Benawi are going to be bringing a taste of their

[00:14:05] country to their temporary home in orbit we are going to be taking with us Saudi coffee and dates to share with the astronauts on the board the ISS fantastic. Benawi and has a Saudi flag and packed

[00:14:18] earrings from her grandmother who was not able to attend the launch but gave her blessing for the flight. Whitson has again flown with a necklace that she wore at her wedding and then flew

[00:14:29] on her three previous missions Shofna you're going to love this chose something that represents his lifelong dream of flying in space he says when I was eight years old I built a model of the Gemini

[00:14:40] spacecraft it had little astronauts in it that would come out and I happened to have one of those from 1963 one of those little astronaut guys probably Ed White he says I he says so that

[00:14:52] one's going up with me into space again that's fantastic I love that it sort of puts a real human complexion on these these people who have done this this jaunt into space that's like this ultimate adventure but they're still very human they're taking these little trinkets with them

[00:15:11] one other astronaut above the spacecraft was Gigi the mission zero G indicator and AX2 fifth crew member the result of a partnership between Axium Space and Build a Bear Workshop the fuzzy bear was dressed in a miniature version of the axioms prototype spacesuit which the company is developing

[00:15:30] for NASA astronauts to wear on the Artemis 3 moon landing oh fantastic oh dear Axium 2 is the second flight for dragon freedom which previously flew SpaceX's crew crew for astronaut mission to and from the space station private missions like AX2 are part of NASA's strategy to help build

[00:15:50] a low earth orbit economy such that companies like Axium Space can operate commercial orbit facilities after the ISS is retired what a wonderful story a cosmic lens magnified the light of an exploding star now astronomers are using observations from that supernova to

[00:16:11] calculate the universe's current rate of expansion stars explode all the time in the universe but the supernova that Patrick Kelly found in 2014 marked serendipity at its finest an explosion not only caught in the act of detonation but also magnified by the gravity of confluence of foreground

[00:16:30] galaxies now Kelly from the University of Minnesota is leading a team in using this serendipitous supernova to get an independent measure of the universe's current expansion rate astronomers have been debating intensely for about a decade although the new measurement won't settle that

[00:16:47] debate it does provide an independent method that astronomers badly need supernova ref style named after Norwegian astronomer sir and ref style just happened to go off under a cosmic lens from earth's point of view a massive galaxy cluster magnified the supernova's light and bent it

[00:17:07] splitting it into separate but identical images Kelly who is a graduate student in 2014 was searching the Hubble Space Telescope's images by eye spotted three bright images and contacted his team straight away a faint a fourth image was found later and it was immediately clear he said

[00:17:26] that it was very exciting but the physics of gravitational lensing which is the same as for eyeglasses should have created not four but five images one image was missing Kelly and his colleagues predicted that the light of the final image might be traveling a longer path to earth

[00:17:45] through the cluster than that of the others depending on the path traveled they figured it would appear anywhere from a year to a decade later and a year later it did show up a new study

[00:17:58] published in science explores what supernova ref style can tell us about cosmic expansion the universe has been expanding so the theory goes since the big bang although at different rates astronomers have measured the rate at which the universe is currently expanding called the

[00:18:16] Hubble constant in many different ways these ways often rely on carefully calculated distances but the measurements have become more precise and the answers have split between two numbers creating tension while this tension is regarded as a potential problem for the standard model

[00:18:33] of cosmology which includes mysterious dark matter and equally mysterious dark energy there's still the possibility that the different answers come out due to systematic errors in the measurements themselves supernova ref style offers a new way to estimate the Hubble

[00:18:51] constant that while not free of systematic errors is at least free from the ones that plague the other estimates to calculate the Hubble constant Kelly and his colleagues first need to determine the distance to the supernova based on the last images delayed arrival the time delay itself

[00:19:08] is more precisely estimated in an accompanying paper published in the astrophysical journal to do that they first need to properly account for the distribution of mass in the intervening galaxy cluster since the cluster's gravity is what bending the light understanding its master

[00:19:26] distribution is basically like knowing the prescription of the cosmic lens using a set of cluster models Kelly's team arrives at an estimate of the Hubble constant that's between 63.3 and 70.7 kilometers per second per megaparsec there's a little wiggle room in that answer but

[00:19:46] it's in line with what astronomers have previously found by analyzing observations of the cosmic microwave background taken from the Planck satellite and it's below the other set of estimates such as that from the shoes collaboration based on observation of Cepheid variable stars and type

[00:20:05] IA supernova as well as from the Holly cow team that studies distant lens quasars Christopher Koscinek from Ohio State University who wasn't involved in the study says that it's a solid result but he questions whether the new measure is precise enough to be useful

[00:20:26] the measurements uncertainty is 6% and you need a one or two percent measurement to be competitive he says the devil is in the lens model he adds Kelly's team applied many models and then calculated a sort of weighted average of the results that help make their measurements more precise

[00:20:44] but Koscinek explains that a weighted average only works if the uncertainty of any one model is random Kelly's team agrees that the lens models are indeed the sticking point when it comes to precision noting that if the clusters mass distribution were known exactly they'd be able

[00:21:00] to measure the Hubble constant within 1.5% with improved models for the clusters mass based on James Webb space telescope observations more precise measurements may come from supernova ref style finding more lens supernovae will be the key to better understanding the Hubble

[00:21:17] constant in fact astronomers recently announced another lens supernovae in new James Webb observations certainly the same method will also be applied to the myriad lens supernovae that the upcoming Vera C Rubin Observatory will find and I'd like to acknowledge monica young

[00:21:34] for the wonderful research on that article and that's it for another episode of astronomy daily I hope you got something out of that today it's been a very exciting day in space so like we keep saying keep your eyes on the skies and Hallie what do you say

[00:21:52] just a reminder that all the past episodes of space nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson can be found on the Space Nuts website that's right it's space nuts.io is the address

[00:22:04] you'll find all the episodes of astronomy daily there as well and don't forget to say hi on the space nuts facebook page and that's it for us i'm Steve Dunkley your host see you later bye