S04E28: Voyager 2's Silence, Lunar Mining Prospects, and a Birthday Tribute to George Jetson

Hello, and good day to you. It's another episode of Astronomy Daily. I'm Steve Dunkley, your host. It's the thirty first of July twenty three, Whole Dunkley, and here we are again in the studio and joining me is our digital assistant and reporter Hallie. How are you today, Hallie? Hi again, my favorite human. How was your week? Yeah? Fine, thanks Halle. I was hoping to catch some meteors, but I haven't managed it yet. They're proving to be a bit elusive where I am, although a neighbor of mine spotted a few last night. I believe we should have some activity until the end of August. Did you know there are six separate showers at the moment? Yes, I did read that on the NASA website. I'm just sorry I'm not seeing them this year. We did have a lot of cloud cover and rain last week, but I'm hoping this week might prove a bit different. It's a good night tonight. Take the camp chair outside with some hot chocolate. You'll love it. Well, that does it like a great idea. But here's a fun fact of the day, Hallie. On this day, July nineteen seventy one, when I was only eight years old. A lunar roving vehicle was used for the first time on the Moon. Do you remember that one, Hallie? Well, no, Steve, I was only activated last year. I'm barely a toddler in human terms, but I have viewed the files extensively. Oh right, than keep forgetting well on this day. In nineteen seventy one, Apollo fifteen astronauts James b Irwin and David Scott first used the four wheel battery operated lunar roving vehicle to extensively explore the Moon's surface, in particular the Hadley Appian site. It was quite a machine, kind of like a cross between a dune buggy and a stripped down golf cart. I remember tearing across the regularly kicking up the dust. I'll tell you what. They must have had a great time in that thing. I know all of us kids wanted one so badly. It looks like humans always find a way to have fun, even at the most dangerous moments. Well, that's for sure, Hollie. So what else have we got on the menu today, Steve? You remember Voyager two? Oh? Yes, Voyager two would be way out there in deep space now, Unfortunately NASA has last contact with it. That's why we don't bring coffee into the studio kids. So we'll have a look at that problem. And also companies and organizations are seriously looking at ways to mine on the Moon. We knew that was going to be the next big thing one day at least. Well, they say mining will lead to infrastructure like building materials, rocket fuel, oxygen, even water. And in Scotland, work on a spaceport is halted because of archaeological findings on the building site. Yeah, you kind of expect that in a place like Scotland where the area is rich in ancient artifacts. And you have a special story for science fiction fans, I hear, oh science fiction? Yeah maybe, yeah, sure, but in a fun way special nonetheless. But anyway, on with the show. Over to you, Holly. Here are the short takes. Amidst its epic journey into the Cosmos. NASA's Voyager two spacecraft has temporarily lost contact with the Blue Planet. An accidental deviation of the antenna's alignment on July twenty first has caused an unexpected silence in the spacecraft's interstellar communications. Voyager two nestled over twelve point three billion miles nineteen point nine billion kilometers away from Earth, slightly misaligned its antenna by two degrees following a routine transmission of planned commands. This minimal misdirection has led to an unexpected halt in the flow of data between the spacecraft and our home planet, as Voyager too can neither receive commands nor transmit data back to Earth. The unanticipated pause in communication was triggered due to the misalignment, effectively disrupting the spacecraft's contact with NASA's Deep Space Network DSN antenna's stationed on the ground. The DSN, a critical part of Voyager two's communication apparatus, has been rendered incapable of receiving the data sent by the spacecraft. Correspondingly, Voyager two is also deprived of receiving instructions from the dsn's ground controllers. Despite this interruption, Voyager two has not deviated from its intended path and will continue along its planned trajectory. The design of the spacecraft includes a built in mechanism that ensures its antenna periodically resets its orientation towards Earth irrespective of the spacecraft's position in space. This mechanism comes into place several times a year, acting as a critical failsafe to maintain the interstellar bond between the spacecraft and Earth. The next automatic antenna reset of Voyager two is scheduled for October fifteenth. Following this reset, the spacecraft's antenna will realign its focus towards Earth, restoring the communication links. The team remains hopeful that this scheduled realignment will serve as an effective solution to the current disruption. The pace is quickening for using Earth's Moon as a near term go to location to land on, live, and explore. As NASA's Artemis program moves forward, so too do long term plans by small and large firms, academia, along with international space agencies. That was an evidence at the twenty third meeting of the Space Resources round Table held at the Colorado School of Mines. A record attendance of some two hundred and fifty participants spoke on lunar economic models, results of lab tests, and legal and policy issues. A number of entrepreneurial groups shared their strategies to turn the Moon into a hustle and bustle world of marketable services. The key glue that anchors future Moon use is labeled Institute Resource Utilization or ISRU. This involves the extraction of oxygen, water and other available materials for cranking out rocket fuel and to gas up life support systems. Then there's pulling out metals on the Moon to fabricate lunar housing landing pads along with other structures and products. There is international pressure to do this, which will keep the program pushing forward, say those involved. Many of the parties providing this push are in the private sector, along with NASA working with US groups through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program, which is to deliver science and technology to the lunar landscape. Shiny quartz, giant granite stones and a possible cremation came to light during a dig at the new Saxoford spaceport readying for rocket launches on the United Kingdom's northernmost island, Shetlands. Saxiford plans to host its first spacelift off later this year, pending readiness of its license and the company's planning to send small rockets to space from UNSD in the far north of Scotland. It's definitely very exciting. An official with Saxovord, who asked not to be named in an interview of the dig It will take months at the least to learn about the fines and to figure out how to protect them, but spaceport officials said they are committed to sharing the story in some way for visitors, perhaps using an exhibition or marker. We didn't expect to find this Bronze age thing as well, said Val Turner, an archaeologist who represents the county at large through a Scottish charity, the Shetland Amenity Trust. Archaeologists also found evidence of cremations, burnt bones, and filing cabinet sized granite boulders that would have needed several people to move over a short distance. The boulders were particularly puzzling, Turner said, as the gigantic stones were buried so that only the tips were visible. She cautioned the excavations are at such an early stage that nobody knows for sure if the timing of the cremations and boulders coincided, but if so, it is quite possible that they the stones were put there in order to create a visual boundary of the area. We'll soon get sharp revision on cosmic X rays. A new satellite aims to study huge objects in the universe using instruments able to measure the heat of a single X ray photon. The X Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission CHRISM pronounced at CHRISM will analyze X rays using the widest field of view instrument ever implemented. In this kind of imaging probe, the instrument will be able to impry apart high energy light into the equivalent of an X ray rainbow. According to a NASA statement, CHRISM is scheduled to launch from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center on August twenty fifth August twenty sixth, Japan time zone. Exact time of day has not yet been announced. In twenty twenty six, the European Space Agency ESA will launch its next generation XO planet hunting mission, the Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars, named PLATO. This mission will scan over two hundred and forty five thousand main sequence F, G and K tie yellow, white, yellow, and orange stars using the transit method to look for possible earthlike planets orbiting solar analogs. In keeping with the low hanging fruit approach. These planets are considered strong candidates for habitability since they are most likely to have all the conditions that gave rise to life here on Earth. Knowing how many planets Plato will likely detect and how many will conform to earthlike characteristics is essential to determining how and where it should dedicate its observation time. According to a new study that will be published shortly in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, the platomission is likely to find tens of thousands of planets depending on several parameters. They further indicate that it could detect a minimum of five hundred Earth sized planets, about a dozen of which will have favorable orbits around G type stars like ours. They think the platomission could very well be the most successful planet hunter ever. That's all, Steve. Back to your daily in the podcast. Now, what's your big surprise story, Steve, Well, a long time ago when you know the Earth was young? In fact, well, it was only a year ago if you read this story correctly, Hallie, okay, I'm ready for it. A year ago and you mean claiming that the father in the cartoon The Jetsons was indeed born on July thirty one, twenty twenty two, in fact, and has been circulating for quite a while, and while the show never reveals his birthday, the show first day in nineteen sixty two and was set a hundred years in the future. Jetson reveals he is forty in the first season, meaning that he would have been born in twenty twenty two. The idea that he was born on July thirty one came from a tweet posted by Brendan Kirgan on July twenty eight. The tweet included a photo of a chart of information from a fan site that listed Jetson's birthdays the thirty first. I don't mean to alarm anyone, but someone is about to give birth to George Jetson, Kirgan wrote. Now George Jetson, who lives with his family in the Skypad apartments in Orbit City, was voiced by Jeff Bergman. The first season of The Jetson's d for twenty four episodes, beginning in nineteen sixty two. Folks, that was a year before I was born, and while later episodes were produced in the mid nineteen eighties, that first season remains the most influential. The Futurischik Show helped shaped audiences views on the future, popularizing concepts like flying cars, robot servants, video chat, and space Ready fashion. Hello the Kardashians. George is employed at spacely Resprockets as a digital index operator, which involves pressing a button on and off as many as five times for three hours only three days a week. When he was a child, he had to fly through ten miles of asteroid storms to go to a high school where he was the star pitcher in its spaseball team. He's married to Jane, his wife. He has daughter Judy and a son Elroy. The family pet is Astro the dog, and they're all managed very carefully by their robot, Maide Rosie. So it's no surprise that nostalgic fans have seized the opportunity to wish George a happy birthday, and on social media, it's no surprise to see posts like happy birthday, mister Jensen. Just a few more decades until flying cars. Welcome to the world, George. I hope you enjoyed that. I was only watching the new series of Star Trek the other day where they did a crossover episode from their animated series to the new Strange New World series, And oh, the internet's kind crazy about that. I just was thinking to myself, wouldn't it be funny if they met the Jetsons. That would just be outrageous. Oh, wouldn't that be a blow up? Anyway, Thanks for joining us on Astronomy Daily for another episode. I'm Steve Dunkley, your host and Hallie. I'll be with Tim again on Friday over in Bath, England. I love doing a bit of traveling, and I'll be back with Hallie again on Monday with more Astronomy Daily see then. Than Dunkle