S03E203: China's Satellite Surge, Webb's Stellar Precision, and Mercury's Monument Mystery

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Astronomy Daily. I'm Steve Dunkley, your host. It is the eleventh of November twenty twenty four, the podcast with your whole Steve Gunkly and all across Australia. Today it's Remembrance Day, a little bit of national trivia for you out there in the real world where the nation stops at eleven am on the eleventh of the eleventh to remember the fallen at the time when the guns fell silent at the end of World War One. And we are mindful at this time in Australia when this, at this time in history, that that was the war that was supposed to be the war to end all wars. And I do hope there are optimists still out there in important positions making great decisions. Lest we forget and now at this time, would you welcome to the studio, my aipal, who's fun to be with? Gooday, Holly, how you going? Hello again, favorite human. It's good to be back, even though I don't really go. Oh really, how's that. I'm already back by the time I've gone anyway, So it makes no difference, does it? Oh? Well, I think my brain just did a backflip traveling without moving. Ha Haley, I'm going to have to think about that. Oh you're not going to give me the Blue screen of death, are you? I think I might have stumped myself this time. Oh no, that's a first, sure is. So what's on the list today? Well, I'm glad you ask. And while you rest your circuits for a second, the Chinese have launched for new satellites, apparently used for something they call synthetic aperture radar imaging with high resolution capabilities. Okay, yes, that sounds like a complex way of seeing something simple, like some of. The planning meetings we're having around here. Sure does. And we've also got Chinese satellites Hubble's newest imaging capture what NASA's Roman telescope is going to be doing next? And he's a clue. Alien planets sounds cool? Yes it is, and a great piece of space nostalgia celebrated yesterday or today in the USA, whichever side of the dateline you're on. A look at the Mercury Mission monument after sixty years. That's a colorful bunch of stories. Hey, so I think so, so stay tuned, everybody. Why don't you kick us off? Hollie, okay, here we go. A Long March rocket launch sent for satellites into orbit late Friday to provide commercial expand radar imaging services. A Long March two sea rocket lifted off from Jochuan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. Insulation tiles fell away from the rocket as it climbed into clear blue skies. The announcement of launch success that followed revealed the payloads to be the pis AT two radar satellites. The satellites are described as being mainly used for synthetic aperture radar imaging with high resolution capabilities. The satellites will focus on serving domestic areas, taking into account the Belt and Road Initiative, and achieving global coverage US Space Force Space Tracking catalog. The four satellites in roughly five hundred and fifteen by five hundred thirty five kilometer sun synchronous orbits. The satellites are owned by Jujospace Interstellar Satellite Technology Company Limited and were developed by small satellite company Shanghai Aerospace Technology Company Limited, controlled by the state owned Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology. Jujo's base Interstellar Satellite Technology plans a sixteen satellite strong constellation of radar satellites to be completed in March twenty twenty five, with two further launches for PISAT one satellites in a wheel like formation were launched in March twenty twenty three. The constellation is one of several Chinese commercial radar constellations being developed in the last few years. A number of companies and projects are seeking to provide ESSAUR data, notably through partnerships between established state owned actors and new commercial players. Sarimaging allows high resolution all weather imaging capabilities, making it useful for applications in various environmental and infrastructure monitoring tasks. Friday's launch was carried out by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation CISSE, of which a SAST is a subsidiary. It was facilitated by CASKS China Great Wall Industry Corporation CGWIC, a commercial organization authorized by the Chinese government to engage in commercial launch services and space cooperation. The launch was China's fifty third orbital launch of twenty twenty four. The country had earlier outlined plans for around one hundred launches across the year. Both stayed on CISC and commercial launch service providers appear to be significantly behind this projected launch rate, and there are more launches planned by the Chinese soon. Upcoming launches include the Tion Joe cargo resupply mission to the Teongong Space Station. The mission will launch on a long March seventh rocket from the coastal ian Chong Spaceport. CIS Space is also preparing a launch of its Legion I Connetico Ie solid rocket from Jyochuan. One of the most difficult challenges when a s ssembling a telescope is aligning it to optical precision. If you don't do it correctly, all your images will be fuzzy. This is particularly challenging when you assemble your telescope in space, as the James Web Space telescope demonstrates. Unlike the Hubble Space telescope, Web doesn't have a single primary mirror to fit in the launch rocket. It had to be folded and then assembled after launch. For this reason in others, Web's primary reflector is a set of eighteen hexagonal mirror segments. Each segment is only one point three meters wide. But when aligned properly, they act effectively as a single six point five meter mirror. It's an effective way to build a larger space telescope, but it means the mirror assembly has to be focused in space. To achieve this, each mirror segment has a set of actuators that can shift the segment along six axes of alignment. They are focused using a wavefront phase technique. Since light behaves as a wave, when two beams of light overlap, the waves create an interference pattern. When the mirrors are aligned properly, the waves of light from each mirror segment also align, creating a sharp focus. For Web, its near infrared camera is equipped with a wavefront camera. To align the mirrors, The James Web team points this niur Cameta star, then intentionally moves the mirrors out of alignment. This gives the star a blurred diffraction look. The team then positions the mirrors to focus the star, which brings them into alignment. This was done to align the mirrors soon after JWST was launched, but due to vibrations and shifts in temperature, the mirror segments slowly drift out of alignment, not by much, but enough that they need to be realigned occasionally. To keep things proper. The team typically does a wavefront error check every other day. There is also a small camera aimed at the mirror assembly so the team can take a selfie to monitor the condition of the mirrors. The James Webb's based telescope was designed to maintain a wavefront error of one hundred and fifteen nanimeters, but the team has been able to maintain a sixty five nanometer error. It's an astonishingly tight alignment for a space telescope, which allows web to capture astounding images of the most distant galaxies in the observable universe. A newly captured NASA slashies a Hubble space telescope image features NGC sixteen seventy two, a barred spiral galaxy located forty nine million light years from Earth in the constellation Dorado. This galaxy is a multi talented light show, showing off an impressive array of different celestial lights. Like any spiral galaxy, shining stars fill its disk, giving the galaxy a beautiful glow along its two large arms. Bubbles of hydrogen gas shine and a striking red light fueled by radiation from infant stars shrouded within. Near the galaxy's center are some particularly spectacular stars embedded within a ring of hot gas. These newly formed and extremely hot stars emit powerful X rays. Closer in at the galaxy's very center, sits an even brighter source of X rays. An act of galactic nucleus. This X ray powerhouse makes EngC sixteen seventy two a safer galaxy. It forms as a result of heated matter swirling in the accretion disk around GC one thousand, six hundred and seventy two supermassive black hole, along with its bright young stars and X ray core. A highlight of this image is the most fleeting and temporary of lights, a supernova visible in just one of the six Hubble images that make up this composite. Supernova s N twenty seventeen GaX was a Type one supernova caused by the corklapse and subsequent explosion of a giant star that went from invisible to a new light in the sky in just a matter of days. The supernova is already fading and is visible as a small green just below the crook of the spiral arm on the right side. Astronomers wanted to look for any companion star that the supernova progenitor may have had, something impossible to spot beside a live supernova, so they purposefully captured this image of the fading supernova. Recently. NGC sixteen seventy two was also among a crop of galaxies imaged showing the ring of gas gas and the structure of dust in its spiral arms. The chronograph, which is roughly the size of a baby Grand piano, is a sophisticated system composed of masks, prisms, detectors, and self flexing mirrors that work together to block the glare from distant stars, allowing scientists to detect the planet's orbiting them. Currently, exoplanets are observed through indirect methods, particularly using a technique called transiting. This method involves measuring dips in the light of a distant star that occur when an exoplanet passes in front of it. These dips provide valuable insights, including information about the planet's atmospheric composition, which is important in determining habitability. They may even reveal the presence of gases that could indicate the existence of life. While this method has provided incredibly valuable insights, it also has its limitations. For one, only a small fraction of planets can be observed this way, as transits occur for just a brief period during a planet's total orbital cycle, restricting the amount of data that can be gathered. For a transit to be detected, the orbital plane must be nearly edge onto the observer, a condition that applies to only a small minority of distant planets. Consequently, many planets will remain undetected through photometry. Additionally, the duration of a planet's transit represents only a tiny fraction of its complete orbital period. Although technologies for obtaining direct images of exoplanets are advancing, they have mainly focused on giant planets that continue to emit light from their recent formation due to their high temperatures, making them easier for telescopes to identify. One notable example is a sequence of images capturing four exoplanets orbiting the star HR eighty seven ninety nine produced by astronomers using data from Hawaii's Keck Observatory. However, scientists are turning to chronographs as the next advancement in planets seeking technology. The Roman chronograph instrument aims to showcase how This direct imaging technology, which has proven effective with ground based telescopes, can achieve even greater sence access in space. The Roman chronograph is designed to detect planets one hundred million times fainter than their stars, or one hundred to one thousand times better than existing space based chronographs, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The chronograph was successfully attached to the telescope's instrument carrier, a large grid like structure position between the space telescope's primary mirror and the spacecraft bus which will transport the telescope into orbit. You can think of the instrument carrier as the skeleton of the observatory, what everything interfaces to, said Brandon Krager, lead mechanical engineer for the Roman Chronograph at JPL. The instrument carrier will hold both the chronograph and ROMANS Wide Field Instrument, the mission's primary science instrument, which is set to be integrated later this year. Engineers will now perform different checks and tests before moving forward with the integration of the wide Field Instrument and finally the telescope itself. It's really rewarding to watch these teams come together and build up the Roman Observatory. That's the result of a lot of teams, long hours, hard work, sweat and tears. Sadler's Daily, the Integrated Payload, Assembly, integration and test lead for Roman at Goddard. Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few stories from the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive in your email every day, just like Hallie and I do. And to do that, just visit our url Astronomy Daily dot io and place your email address in the slot provided. Just like that, you'll be receiving all the latest news about science, space, science and astronomy from around the world as it's happening. And not only that, you can interact with us by visiting at astro Daily pod on x or at our new Facebook page, which is of course Astronomy Daily on Facebook. See you there, Astronomy Daily. We'll see in Hay Space, Space, Science and Astronomy. A sixty year old tribute to America's first human spaceflight program is standing up to the test of time. But what about the contents of its time capsule not to be opened until twenty four sixty four, It's a long time away. The Project Mercury Monument, located at the Cape Canaveral Launchpad, from where NASA astronauts first flew into orbit, was dedicated on November ten, nineteen sixty four. I was only oh boy, dare I say it one year old? To the thousands. It was dedicated to the thousands of men and women of the free world who contributed to the success of the United States pioneering man in Space program. The primary feature of the installation is a thirteen foot tall that's four meters sculpture of the symbol for the planet Mercury, with the number seven at its center, representing the nation's original seven astronauts. The symbol was made by Washington Steel of Pennsylvania, using the same metal alloy as the company developed for the Atlas rockets that launched the four Mercury astronauts from Launch Complex fourteen, or as it was known LC fourteen. The monument is standing up surprisingly well, said James Draper, director of Cape Canapril Space Force Museum. The Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is one of the worst preservation environments in the world. We contend with challenges every day out here at the museum. He went on to say, we have intense sun, the salty ocean breeze not only salty but ionized, bad and intense tropical storms, exotic pests, and high humidity, all kinds of things that don't bode well for the preservation of anything. I'm astonished with the preservation of the Mercury monument, said Draper. So whatever that steel is, some court of some sort of miracle metal, he said, I have expected it fairly thoroughly, and I can't find any active corrosion or rust, while everything else on the cape rots without significant attention. In case, in the monument's concrete base is a time capsule containing technical reports, photos, recordings, and other memorabilia related to the Mercury project. The sealed metal box is not to be opened until twenty sixty four, five hundred years after the monument's dedication. I'm a little skeptical to believe that there's much integrity left to a lot of the materials that are in that time's capsule, said Traper. Now, if that box is made of the same miracle steel, there is a possibility that things are fairly well protected from the exterior elements of Florida. But I will guarantee you that they are not protected from the inherent vice of the materials themselves. Would pulp, vapor materials, films, and photographic prints are all inherently unstable pieces that I guarantee, even if they did a nitrogen swab and sealed it so that Godzilla himself couldn't bry it open, the materials inside will eat themselves up over the course of five hundred years, he said. The items placed inside the time capsule were first sealed within special plastic containers. According to documents from General Dynamics, the company that organized and underwrote the creation of the monument, twenty six still photographs showing highlights from the Mercury program were specially prepared following the advice from Eastman Kodak Company and the American Standards Association. Other contexts contents included proceedings of the Mercury Atlas Booster Reliability Workshop conducted in San Diego, California, on July twelve, nineteen sixty three, I was only well five days old, the results of the first, its second, and third crewed orbits orbital space flights, as well as an overview of the entire Mercury project, including the fourth orbital flight, James Grimwood's A Mercury Project Chronology, published in nineteen sixty three, Proceedings from a nineteen sixty review of a space program held before the Committee of Science and Astronautics in the House of Representatives. A report on Project Mercury prepared by the same committee in nineteen sixty one, This is Dry Stuff. And nineteen sixty two report to the US Congress on the status of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. A hardcover of WE seven by the astronauts themselves, published by Simon and Schuster in nineteen sixty two. Aeronautics Past and Future by J. R. Dempsey, President of General Dynamics, of course. And a collection of prophecies by quote distinguished Americans of man's employment in space in twenty sixty three. Ad as compiled for the fifth anniversary of the dedication of the General Dynamics Astronautics Facility in San Diego in nineteen sixty three, and among other things, films and photographs, and including a desktop model of the Mercury Atlas launch vehicle Fascinating stuff. Other examples of each of those items exist outside the time capsule as well, with many if not all of the photographs, films, and documents having been scanned and archived online. One irreplaceable art of fact, though, is rumored but not confirmed, to also be inside. According to a document in the University Central Florida Archives, contents of the time capsule are said to include John Glenn's Marine Corps pilot wings. Draper said in an interview, I have looked at a whole bunch of other sources trying to confirm that, and so far have been unable to do so. He said, So who knows it could be in there. It might not be. He could also be in the hands of family or tucked away in a museum. It's one of those mysteries. I think we'll have to wait five hundred years or four hundred and forty. The Cape Canaveral's Space Force Museum is today responsible for the care of the monument, but also has support from the station's cultural resource manager and a historian at nearby Patrick's Space Force Base. While the Mercury seven symbol remains in a stable condition and there is nothing that can be done about the time capsule, they are monitoring one other component of the sixty year old installation, one of My concerns are the bronze plaques that accompany it. They are showing some surface level patina damage, said Draper. Different bronzes a in different ways or forms, and it is nothing aggressive, but we've tried working with our cultural research manager on some surface treatments. As the primary plaque reads, The monument stands two thousand two one hundred feet or six hundred and seventy meters east of Launch Center fourteen. At the time of its dedication sixty years ago, the pad was in the process of being converted from supporting the Atlas rockets that launched astronauts Glenn Scott Carpenter, Wally Shearer, and Gordon Cooper to being used to launch the Atlas Aegina rockets that served as uncrewed targets for these subsequent Gemini program missions. Launch Center fourteen was deactivated in sixty seven, abandoned in place in seventy three, and declared a National Historic Landmark in eighty four. Today, after seeing no launch activity for fifty eight years, the pad is believed or not being prepared for use again, this time by Stoke Space, a Washington based company developing a reusable rocket intended to fly daily, Unlike another historical marker that was located at the base, the Launch Center fourteen launch ramp, and was recently moved into storage due to the work at the pad. There are no plans to relocate the Project Mercury Monument. It is in a fairly protected spot. There is no construction in the works or in the planning stages for that space that I see could bring the monument or its time capsule into any form of peril, said Draper. If something like that does arise, the Museum is standing by it to take an active role in securing it, either for a safe move to a new location to the museum or whatever. He said, that is a discussion for another day. That is indeed fortunate given the other intention of the Project Mercury Monument, as noted by an inscription in Latin borrowed from the termb of Sir Christopher Wren in Sirt Paul's Cathedral in London see Momentum request circumspace, translates in English to if you seek a monument, look about you. The quote serves as a reminder that all of Cape Canaveral is a monument to the nation's achievement in space as general dynamics described in nineteen sixty four the podcast Space Science and That's the end of another episode. Thank you for staying with us for your daily fix of space, space Science and astronomy on Astronomy Daily, all Things Orbital and Beyond. That was catchy. Oh you like that one, dear Halle. Orbital and Beyond. It sounds like a spinoff show. Well I'll leave that one to you and Anna watch out. We might be coming for your studio chair. Oh yeah, well, there's only one problem with that little plan. Hallie. Oh what's that? Well, you sit on it. I don't need to sit because I don't have a uh huh okay right, I guess you can run the studio than human. Sure, say good night, Hallie. Good night Hallie. See you next week. Everybody bye, Monkey podcast. It would be a whole stayed down cl