Space Nuts Episode 501: Lunar Landings, Andromeda Mysteries, and Voyager-1 Update
Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson (yes, he's back) in this exciting episode of Space Nuts, where they dive into groundbreaking achievements in lunar exploration, the mysteries surrounding the Andromeda galaxy, and the latest updates from Voyager 1. This episode is packed with fascinating insights and updates that will keep you engaged and curious about the cosmos.
Episode Highlights:
- Blue Ghost Lunar Lander: The episode kicks off with the successful landing of the Blue Ghost lunar lander by Firefly Aerospace. Andrew and Fred discuss the significance of this commercial mission, how it differs from past government-funded endeavors, and what it means for future lunar exploration.
- Odin Asteroid Probe Troubles: The duo then shifts focus to the Odin asteroid probe, which has encountered some challenges en route to its target. They explore the implications of its current state and what this means for the future of asteroid mining and exploration missions.
- Andromeda Galaxy's Dwarf Galaxies: Andrew and Fred delve into the latest research on Andromeda, discussing how its dwarf galaxies are behaving unusually. They explore the potential gravitational influences at play and the surprising findings from Hubble observations that challenge existing theories about galaxy formation.
- Voyager 1's Communication Update: The episode wraps up with an update on Voyager 1, the most distant human-made object, which has resumed sending intelligible signals back to Earth after overcoming some technical difficulties. Andrew and Fred reflect on the incredible journey of Voyager 1 and its ongoing contributions to our understanding of the universe.
For more Space Nuts, including our continually updating newsfeed and to listen to all our episodes, visit our website. Follow us on social media at SpaceNutsPod on Facebook, X, YouTube Music Music, Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favorite platform.
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Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing.
00:00 - Introduction and lunar lander success
02:15 - Discussion on the Blue Ghost lunar lander
10:30 - Updates on the Odin asteroid probe
18:00 - Insights into Andromeda's dwarf galaxies
26:45 - Voyager 1's communication update
30:00 - Closing thoughts and listener engagement
✍️ Episode References
Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Mission Details
https://www.firefly.com/blueghost
Odin Asteroid Mission Overview
https://www.astro.com/odin
Andromeda Galaxy Research Findings
https://www.hubblesite.org/andromeda
Voyager 1 Communication Updates
https://www.nasa.gov/voyager1
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts-astronomy-insights-cosmic-discoveries--2631155/support.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Andrew Dunkley: Hello again. Thanks for joining us. This is
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 Space Nuts. My name is Andrew Dunkley. Thanks
00:00:04 --> 00:00:06 for joining us. Coming up on this episode, we
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 are going to be looking at a rather amazing
00:00:09 --> 00:00:12 achievement involving a. An
00:00:12 --> 00:00:15 organization who have landed on the moon. And
00:00:15 --> 00:00:17 you're saying, yeah, it's been done. Not like
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 this, it hasn't. On top of that, we've got
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 a mission that's going past the moon that
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 is in a little bit of trouble as well. We'll
00:00:25 --> 00:00:27 also focus our attention on the Andromeda
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 galaxy. And we've had some questions recently
00:00:29 --> 00:00:32 about Andromeda. Well, uh, you be interested
00:00:32 --> 00:00:35 to know that it has been
00:00:35 --> 00:00:37 suffering from interference and it wasn't us.
00:00:37 --> 00:00:40 It wasn't. We didn't do it. And Voyager
00:00:40 --> 00:00:42 1 back in the news again. That's all coming
00:00:42 --> 00:00:45 up on this episode of space nuts.
00:00:45 --> 00:00:48 Voice Over Guy: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.
00:00:48 --> 00:00:51 10, 9. Ignition
00:00:51 --> 00:00:54 sequence start. Space nuts. 5, 4, 3,
00:00:54 --> 00:00:57 2. 1. 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4,
00:00:57 --> 00:01:00 3, 2, 1. Space nuts. Astronauts
00:01:00 --> 00:01:01 report it feels good.
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04 Andrew Dunkley: And he's back in the big chair after a month
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 away. It's Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 at large. Hello, Fred.
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 Professor Fred Watson: Hello, Andrew. Good to be back. Uh, so
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 the politicians always say, good to be with
00:01:13 --> 00:01:14 you.
00:01:14 --> 00:01:15 Andrew Dunkley: Yes, they do, don't they?
00:01:15 --> 00:01:17 Professor Fred Watson: Good to be with you.
00:01:17 --> 00:01:20 Andrew Dunkley: I'm sure they sit there with, um, with
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 consultants and committees. The right way to
00:01:23 --> 00:01:23 say hello.
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, that's right. And the answer
00:01:26 --> 00:01:27 is. Good to be with you.
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 Andrew Dunkley: Good to be with you.
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 Um, now, we talked on the last
00:01:32 --> 00:01:34 episode or two, um, when you
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 popped in on us, um, about your trip
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 north. One thing I wondered
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 is, while you were there to look at the
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 aurora borealis and the like,
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 um, on an astronomy tour, did you actually
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 get to see, uh, the planetary
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 alignment? Or couldn't you view it from that
00:01:53 --> 00:01:54 far north?
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, we could, but, uh,
00:01:59 --> 00:02:01 you're right, it's a good question because
00:02:01 --> 00:02:04 the ecliptic, which is where all the planets
00:02:04 --> 00:02:06 lie, uh, just like the equator, the
00:02:06 --> 00:02:09 celestial equator is very low down at the
00:02:09 --> 00:02:10 latitudes we were at. The furthest north we
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 got was to north cape, which is 71 degrees
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 latitude. Um, a lot of the time we're in
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 Greenland. Iceland's a little bit further
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 south. It's only the top, really. The north
00:02:21 --> 00:02:22 coast of Iceland, that's within the Arctic
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 Circle. But we're also, well, in the Arctic
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 Circle in Sweden and Norway. North Cape, of
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 course, is in Norway. Uh, so, yes, your view
00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 of the sky is different. Um,
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 what? Always. And I remember being struck by
00:02:35 --> 00:02:38 this in my very, very first visit
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 to the Arctic, which was back in 2012 when we
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 led our first expedition up there.
00:02:43 --> 00:02:46 Uh, and I was struck by the fact that I
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 could see stars which
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 from our latitude in. And I'm
00:02:52 --> 00:02:53 still thinking of the northern hemisphere
00:02:53 --> 00:02:56 from the latitude of the United Kingdom, were
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 only visible in the summertime and we were
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 there in the middle of winter. So you can
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 see, um, at least two stars of something
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 called the summer triangle. The summer
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 triangle is Vega, Altair, and
00:03:08 --> 00:03:11 the brightest star in Cygnus, which is,
00:03:11 --> 00:03:14 um, Deneb. Deneb. Vega
00:03:14 --> 00:03:17 and Altair. Vega and Deneb were very,
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 very visible, uh, in
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 midwinter, uh, near the north pole
00:03:22 --> 00:03:25 because the pole of the sky
00:03:25 --> 00:03:28 is tilted upwards so you can see things that
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 from kind of middle latitudes you'd only see
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 in summer. Uh, so what it meant was. Yes,
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 your question is well made. Uh, we certainly
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 saw Venus, Jupiter and Mars very
00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 clearly, probably Saturn, although it was
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 quite near the horizon then. And I don't
00:03:43 --> 00:03:45 think we got a glimpse of Mercury. So that
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 parade of planets that really, uh, occupied
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 the media, uh, for us in the southern
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 hemisphere, it was actually best back in
00:03:52 --> 00:03:52 January.
00:03:52 --> 00:03:53 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah.
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, it's, uh, it's only in the north that
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 it's been a hot topic within the last few
00:03:57 --> 00:03:58 days.
00:03:58 --> 00:04:00 Andrew Dunkley: The reason I ask is it's been in the news
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 again because they said that, uh, well,
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 the popular press is saying, oh, you know,
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 the big alignment first time. Yeah, last time
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 we'll see it in 60 years, blah, blah. Um,
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 Jonti has a particular problem with the way
00:04:13 --> 00:04:13 the media.
00:04:13 --> 00:04:14 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 Andrew Dunkley: Spews this kind of information out and,
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 you know, don't let the truth get in the way
00:04:19 --> 00:04:20 of good story type of attitude.
00:04:20 --> 00:04:21 Professor Fred Watson: That's right.
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 Andrew Dunkley: Um, but it was,
00:04:24 --> 00:04:27 uh, apparently it was the whole set
00:04:27 --> 00:04:29 at the end of February because Mercury was
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 part of the deal then.
00:04:31 --> 00:04:32 Professor Fred Watson: From the Northern hemisphere.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Well, there you go. And um,
00:04:35 --> 00:04:37 Yeah, I was just wondering if you got a
00:04:37 --> 00:04:38 chance to spot it.
00:04:38 --> 00:04:41 Professor Fred Watson: But, uh, no, didn't see Mercury.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 Andrew Dunkley: No, I didn't see any of it much.
00:04:44 --> 00:04:44 Professor Fred Watson: Okay.
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 Andrew Dunkley: I did go out and look, but where I am in
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 town, it's. It's a really bad position and
00:04:49 --> 00:04:51 I'd have to, uh, go out and find a hill and
00:04:51 --> 00:04:53 as you know, there are not that many of them
00:04:53 --> 00:04:54 around here.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 Professor Fred Watson: No, no. You're a bit, uh, a bit low on hills
00:04:56 --> 00:04:58 up there. You need somebody to come and build
00:04:58 --> 00:04:59 one for you.
00:04:59 --> 00:05:02 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, yeah. Or just cut all the trees
00:05:02 --> 00:05:03 down and.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 Professor Fred Watson: Oh, is that too. But that's not a good idea.
00:05:05 --> 00:05:06 Andrew Dunkley: No, not really.
00:05:06 --> 00:05:06 Professor Fred Watson: No.
00:05:06 --> 00:05:07 Andrew Dunkley: Okay.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 All right. Uh, let's get onto Our first
00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 official story and this one is very
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 exciting and again getting a lot of
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 press and that's been the successful landing
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 of the Blue Ghost Lunar
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 lander on the moon. Uh, this
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 is a lot different to what we were
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 witnessing in the 60s and 70s and a
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 few of the more recent missions because they
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 were um, publicly
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 funded and um, government gazetted and all
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 that jazz. This is a completely different
00:05:39 --> 00:05:40 kettle of.
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 Professor Fred Watson: Fish indeed because it
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 is a commercial spaceflight, it's a
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 commercial company, uh, with the lovely name
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 of Firefly Aerospace. Uh, their Blue
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 Ghost lander is named after a rare species
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 of Firefly, uh, which is found in the
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 Appalachian area of the United States.
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 I uh, love the name of the mission. It's not
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 Apollo or Artemis or anything. It's called
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 Ghost Riders in the Sky.
00:06:07 --> 00:06:08 Andrew Dunkley: I love it.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:12 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, and we did see, uh, earlier in the week
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 before the spacecraft landed successfully,
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 which it did on uh, March 2, uh,
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 Eastern Standard Time, Sunday
00:06:20 --> 00:06:23 at the weekend. The weekend just gone. Uh, we
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 did see some images during the week from the
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 navigation cameras which uh, showed the Earth
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 and the moon as uh, the lander flew
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 by. But the reason why this lander is going
00:06:33 --> 00:06:36 to the moon or has gone to the moon is that
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 it's part of uh, something you and I have
00:06:38 --> 00:06:41 Talked about, Andrew. NASA's Commercial Lunar
00:06:41 --> 00:06:43 Payload Services program,
00:06:43 --> 00:06:46 CLPS Commercial Commercial Lunar
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 Payload, uh, which basically is NASA
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 contracting to private companies,
00:06:51 --> 00:06:54 uh, for payloads to go to the
00:06:54 --> 00:06:57 lunar surface, uh, either experiments
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 or um, you know, I suppose they, they're
00:07:00 --> 00:07:02 all experiments or at least uh, things that
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 test the technology, uh, uh,
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 basically to check things out before the
00:07:08 --> 00:07:11 Artemis mission really gets underway with
00:07:11 --> 00:07:14 a lunar landing. We hope that
00:07:14 --> 00:07:16 Artemis will see humans walking on the
00:07:16 --> 00:07:19 moon. 2027 I
00:07:19 --> 00:07:22 think is the current date. Uh, but
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 that could change because all sorts of things
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 are happening, uh, inside NASA, which we
00:07:27 --> 00:07:30 really didn't expect. Um, anyway, uh,
00:07:30 --> 00:07:32 the Launch was on the 15th of January, so
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 it's taken a little while to get there.
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 It uh,
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 um, the spacecraft rode into orbit on a
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 Falcon 9, a SpaceX Falcon 9, uh,
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 and essentially uh, having gone into
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 lunar orbit, uh, earlier in February,
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 13th of February, it was
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 descended or sent, um, a
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 command to descend to the lunar
00:07:56 --> 00:07:59 surface on the 1st of March and successfully
00:07:59 --> 00:08:02 touched down on the 2nd. So really great
00:08:02 --> 00:08:04 stuff. Fantastic news that a, uh,
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 commercial spaceflight has landed
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 successfully on the moon.
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 Andrew Dunkley: Yes, it is marvelous and
00:08:11 --> 00:08:14 um, it's a very short mission though, isn't
00:08:14 --> 00:08:15 it? They're not going to be doing much for
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 long from what I understand.
00:08:17 --> 00:08:19 Professor Fred Watson: I think that's Right. I think the, the, you
00:08:19 --> 00:08:20 know, the essential part was just
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 demonstrating that they can get there.
00:08:22 --> 00:08:23 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah.
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, which they've now done very
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 successfully. Um, it's, uh,
00:08:28 --> 00:08:31 it's. I think it's, uh,
00:08:31 --> 00:08:33 as you said, it's a short mission. Uh, I
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 think it's one of these things that will only
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 last for a lunar day. I need to check that.
00:08:38 --> 00:08:39 But it's that sort of time.
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 Uh, it's easy to find some really nice
00:08:43 --> 00:08:45 pictures of, uh, what
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 the sky would look like for Blue
00:08:48 --> 00:08:51 Ghost. Uh, there's a very nice picture on
00:08:51 --> 00:08:53 X of a gentleman by the name of
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 Buzz Aldrin watching the landing. Yes.
00:08:56 --> 00:08:58 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. He sent them a message of
00:08:58 --> 00:08:59 congratulations.
00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 Professor Fred Watson: Yes. Yeah. Uh, which is great. And, you
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 know, who better to send a
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 congratulations to a, um, like
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 that than Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk
00:09:11 --> 00:09:11 on the moon.
00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 Andrew Dunkley: Absolutely. Yes. And I, uh, think I've
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 mentioned before I've had the great pleasure
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 of meeting and interviewing him in my radio
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 career. So that was one of the big highlights
00:09:20 --> 00:09:21 for me.
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, and one of the highlights for me was
00:09:23 --> 00:09:24 having dinner with him.
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 Andrew Dunkley: Oh, uh, that's even better. Yeah.
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, it was really interesting. We'll talk
00:09:29 --> 00:09:30 about that some of the time. It was a very
00:09:30 --> 00:09:32 interesting meeting, but it was very
00:09:32 --> 00:09:34 stimulating. This is probably a decade ago.
00:09:34 --> 00:09:35 Yeah, yeah.
00:09:35 --> 00:09:36 Andrew Dunkley: Great.
00:09:36 --> 00:09:37 Professor Fred Watson: Great company, as you know.
00:09:37 --> 00:09:38 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah.
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 I, I notice, uh, in one of the stories, I
00:09:41 --> 00:09:42 think it's in sky and telescope,
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 uh.org they they refer to
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 the, uh, descent orbit insertion
00:09:48 --> 00:09:50 as nine minutes of terror.
00:09:50 --> 00:09:51 Professor Fred Watson: Yes.
00:09:51 --> 00:09:53 Andrew Dunkley: But we've talked about these terrifying
00:09:53 --> 00:09:55 landings on other worlds, particularly
00:09:55 --> 00:09:58 Mars. I wouldn't have thought that it would
00:09:58 --> 00:10:01 be as big a deal on the moon, given that
00:10:01 --> 00:10:03 this, you know, no atmosphere of.
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 Professor Fred Watson: You're right. Yeah. And you're
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 absolutely right because, um, you know, if
00:10:09 --> 00:10:11 you're landing on Mars, a lot of the, uh,
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 trajectory is dictated not just by, uh,
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 orbital mechanics, which is how things work
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 in space, but dictated by the vagaries of
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21 the atmosphere. If you've got slightly higher
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 pressure than you expected, you've got more
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 braking force, and suddenly, uh, your
00:10:25 --> 00:10:28 spacecraft is heading for a different part of
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 the surface at a higher speed than you would
00:10:30 --> 00:10:33 want or lower speed or whatever. Um, and
00:10:33 --> 00:10:35 you're right that, um, in the case of the
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 Moon, it's all about orbital mechanics, which
00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 are very, very predictable. But you can
00:10:40 --> 00:10:42 imagine, you know, you've got to fire those
00:10:42 --> 00:10:44 thrusters at just the right moment to break
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 it so that when it lands on the moon, it
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 doesn't land too hard and smash up on the
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 rocks or basically bounce off and then
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 smash up. You've got to get things just
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56 right. So nine minutes of terror. I can
00:10:56 --> 00:10:58 sympathize with that. I think I'd feel like
00:10:58 --> 00:10:59 that too.
00:10:59 --> 00:11:01 Andrew Dunkley: Well, when you're talking about breaking from
00:11:01 --> 00:11:04 3 miles an hour to 90 miles an
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 hour. Yes, that, that would be,
00:11:07 --> 00:11:10 that would be terrifying if, um, you know,
00:11:10 --> 00:11:11 you push the wrong button.
00:11:13 --> 00:11:16 And I think I had to smile when I read
00:11:16 --> 00:11:19 the story because they, they said successful,
00:11:19 --> 00:11:22 uh, landing and upright.
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 So I think, I think they were
00:11:25 --> 00:11:26 sort of saying, well, you know, even if it
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 lands on its side, that's a success. But it's
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30 even better that it's standing.
00:11:30 --> 00:11:33 Professor Fred Watson: It was last year, wasn't it, that one of the
00:11:33 --> 00:11:35 spacecraft did land on its side? That's
00:11:35 --> 00:11:35 right.
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 Andrew Dunkley: I think it was the Indian mission.
00:11:37 --> 00:11:39 Professor Fred Watson: Was it, Was it Indian or Japanese? I can't
00:11:39 --> 00:11:42 remember. Um, but yeah. So it was landed in
00:11:42 --> 00:11:44 such a way that the solar panels weren't
00:11:44 --> 00:11:44 seeing the sun.
00:11:44 --> 00:11:45 Andrew Dunkley: Yes, that's right.
00:11:46 --> 00:11:47 Professor Fred Watson: So, yes, it's very important to have it the
00:11:47 --> 00:11:48 right way up.
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Anyway, we wish them well. It'll be a
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 quick visit and it
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 paves the way for Artemis too. We still don't
00:11:55 --> 00:11:58 know when that's going to happen. Seems to be
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 getting pushed back time and time again. But
00:12:00 --> 00:12:01 they will get there eventually.
00:12:02 --> 00:12:03 Professor Fred Watson: I'm sure they will.
00:12:03 --> 00:12:04 Andrew Dunkley: One will hope.
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 Generic: Roger, you're allowed to start here also
00:12:08 --> 00:12:09 space nuts.
00:12:10 --> 00:12:12 Andrew Dunkley: Now, while we're talking about these kinds
00:12:12 --> 00:12:14 of, uh, commercial missions, there's another
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16 one that's in the news. This is a private
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 mission, uh, that was heading out past
00:12:19 --> 00:12:22 the moon to the Odin asteroid, the
00:12:22 --> 00:12:25 um, private Odin asteroid probe.
00:12:25 --> 00:12:28 All was looking nominal
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 until recently. Things seem to have gone
00:12:31 --> 00:12:32 awry somewhat.
00:12:33 --> 00:12:36 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, the uh, the comment
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38 that perhaps highlights the situation comes
00:12:38 --> 00:12:41 from, uh, uh, somebody by the name of
00:12:41 --> 00:12:44 Matthew Gialish, I think it is, who is the co
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 founder and CEO of AstroDailyPod Forge, which
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 is the, um, the organization that
00:12:49 --> 00:12:51 is operating the Odin
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 spacecraft. Uh, what he said
00:12:53 --> 00:12:56 on Friday, uh, the 28th of February
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 was we don't fully understand the state of
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 the vehicle. Uh, it's
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 thought still though, to be in a mode that
00:13:04 --> 00:13:07 means it's not being fried by the light of
00:13:07 --> 00:13:10 the sun. It's in an attitude
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 in regard to the sun
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 that will not have
00:13:16 --> 00:13:19 parts of it being unduly heated, although,
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 uh, we believe that it is tumbling.
00:13:22 --> 00:13:25 Um, and uh, you know, uh, this is
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 not a good thing for a spacecraft, um,
00:13:27 --> 00:13:30 uh, to experience.
00:13:31 --> 00:13:34 That's one of two alternatives which I think
00:13:34 --> 00:13:37 are still valid, Andrew. One is that the
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 spacecraft is tumbling, uh, which is not
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 nice, uh, or the other is that everything's
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 fine, but there are issues with the telemetry
00:13:45 --> 00:13:46 back on Earth, their ground receivers not
00:13:46 --> 00:13:49 being properly configured or whatever. So
00:13:49 --> 00:13:52 they're still basically worrying about
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 what's. What's going on. We should check that
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 story again, perhaps next week.
00:13:56 --> 00:13:58 Andrew Dunkley: What's the goal of the mission? They're going
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 to visit an asteroid. But what do they want
00:14:00 --> 00:14:01 to do with it?
00:14:01 --> 00:14:04 Professor Fred Watson: Basically check it out, uh, to
00:14:04 --> 00:14:07 send imagery, uh, of,
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 uh, an asteroid which rejoices in the name of
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 2022 OB5. Uh,
00:14:12 --> 00:14:15 and, um, it's a
00:14:15 --> 00:14:18 possible first step
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 in basically
00:14:20 --> 00:14:23 recovering resources from a space
00:14:23 --> 00:14:26 object. In other words, asteroid mining. Wow.
00:14:26 --> 00:14:29 So if this mission was successful, and
00:14:29 --> 00:14:31 we're not sure that that's the case at the
00:14:31 --> 00:14:33 moment, um, this mission is
00:14:34 --> 00:14:36 basically designed to focus,
00:14:36 --> 00:14:39 uh, the cameras, uh, on
00:14:39 --> 00:14:42 that asteroid 2022 OB5,
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 in order to get a
00:14:45 --> 00:14:48 survey of the surface, see what's there, take
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 lots of images, use, um, the filters in the
00:14:51 --> 00:14:53 cameras to get some idea of the surface
00:14:54 --> 00:14:55 texture and things of that sort, which you
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 can do, particularly in the infrared wave
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00 band. But that's a precursor, uh, to a second
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 mission. This mission's called odin. The
00:15:03 --> 00:15:05 second mission is called Vestri, which will
00:15:05 --> 00:15:07 aim to land on the asteroid. So that's
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 perhaps the more ambitious one that we
00:15:10 --> 00:15:13 will be looking at down the track. Assuming
00:15:13 --> 00:15:16 that Odin, uh, pulls it off or Space
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 Forge pulls it off, as far as odin's
00:15:18 --> 00:15:18 concerned.
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, uh, well, fingers crossed. Um,
00:15:22 --> 00:15:25 I think this quote from Matt Gillick,
00:15:25 --> 00:15:28 uh, who you quoted earlier, says it
00:15:28 --> 00:15:31 all. I think we all know the hope is fading
00:15:31 --> 00:15:32 as we continue the mission.
00:15:33 --> 00:15:36 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, um, I mean, it's what
00:15:36 --> 00:15:37 we've always said. Space is hard.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 Andrew Dunkley: It's tough out there. Yeah, yeah, it's, uh,
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 it's a difficult gig. But they keep on
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 trying. And, uh, you know, not all missions
00:15:45 --> 00:15:47 are absolute failures. Even when they don't
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50 go well, there's something to learn, and
00:15:50 --> 00:15:51 there's always something to learn.
00:15:51 --> 00:15:51 Professor Fred Watson: That's right.
00:15:51 --> 00:15:54 Andrew Dunkley: It's better next time. Yes, indeed.
00:15:54 --> 00:15:57 And you, uh, can read about that story if you
00:15:57 --> 00:16:00 like@spare.com. this is
00:16:00 --> 00:16:02 Space Nets with Andrew Dunkley and Professor
00:16:02 --> 00:16:03 Fred Watson.
00:16:05 --> 00:16:07 Okay, we checked all four systems and team
00:16:07 --> 00:16:09 with a Go Space Net.
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11 Okay, Fred, let's, uh, head towards
00:16:11 --> 00:16:13 Andromeda. Or is it heading towards us?
00:16:14 --> 00:16:16 Either way, uh, we. We've
00:16:16 --> 00:16:19 had a few questions recently with Jonti about
00:16:19 --> 00:16:22 Andromeda, and he was, um. Yeah, uh, he had a
00:16:22 --> 00:16:25 lot to say about it. Uh, and one of the
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27 questions we got recently was is the
00:16:27 --> 00:16:30 Milky Way already affecting
00:16:30 --> 00:16:33 Andromeda? And you know, to
00:16:33 --> 00:16:36 a certain degree, not a massive amount. The
00:16:36 --> 00:16:39 answer is yes, according to Jonti. Uh,
00:16:39 --> 00:16:42 but uh, we don't have to do that because it's
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 now been discovered that Andromeda's um,
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 being picked on by some little
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49 cousins nearby. It's already
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 getting ah, a bit of a dust up, so to
00:16:52 --> 00:16:53 speak.
00:16:54 --> 00:16:56 Professor Fred Watson: It may. Yeah. So this may be the
00:16:56 --> 00:16:59 results of something bigger, something
00:16:59 --> 00:17:02 that we probably need to know about as well.
00:17:02 --> 00:17:05 Um, the bottom
00:17:05 --> 00:17:07 line here is you're quite right. Uh,
00:17:08 --> 00:17:11 the Andromeda galaxy, we can see, we see
00:17:11 --> 00:17:13 it in the constellation of Andromeda,
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 obviously, uh, at a distance of about 2 1/2
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 million light years, uh, like the
00:17:18 --> 00:17:21 Earth. Sorry, let me
00:17:21 --> 00:17:24 rephrase that. Like the Milky Way,
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 our own galaxy, um, it's surrounded
00:17:27 --> 00:17:30 by a uh, swarm of dwarf
00:17:30 --> 00:17:32 galaxies. In fact about
00:17:32 --> 00:17:35 three or four dozen of them altogether.
00:17:35 --> 00:17:37 Um, it's uh, it is,
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 uh, those dwarf galaxies, we call
00:17:40 --> 00:17:42 them satellite galaxies because they are
00:17:42 --> 00:17:45 satellites of Andromeda, uh, have
00:17:45 --> 00:17:48 been analyzed to death, uh, in a,
00:17:48 --> 00:17:51 in you know, some new research that's been
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 carried out using the Hubble Space TeleScope
00:17:53 --> 00:17:56 still, after 35 years, still doing
00:17:56 --> 00:17:59 a very, very fine job in giving us
00:17:59 --> 00:18:02 spectra and images of distant objects.
00:18:02 --> 00:18:05 So uh, the researchers have used the Hubble,
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 uh, essentially to map the motion
00:18:08 --> 00:18:10 of these dwarf galaxies, which is an
00:18:10 --> 00:18:12 extraordinary thing to be able to do, um,
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 and look at their
00:18:15 --> 00:18:18 position in three dimensions around the
00:18:18 --> 00:18:20 uh, Andromeda galaxy. Uh,
00:18:20 --> 00:18:23 and it's comparing uh,
00:18:24 --> 00:18:26 what they found with what we know from
00:18:27 --> 00:18:29 the dwarf galaxies that orbit our own. And
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31 it's is probably a similar sort of number.
00:18:31 --> 00:18:33 It's about two dozen, I think, satellite uh,
00:18:34 --> 00:18:36 galaxies that we have. The biggest two are
00:18:36 --> 00:18:38 the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Uh,
00:18:38 --> 00:18:41 so you take all that, um,
00:18:41 --> 00:18:43 uh, you build a map of where these galaxies
00:18:43 --> 00:18:45 are around Andromeda and you find that
00:18:45 --> 00:18:48 they're in quite different orientations
00:18:48 --> 00:18:51 from what we find in our own
00:18:51 --> 00:18:54 galaxy. Um, uh, one
00:18:54 --> 00:18:57 of the comments, uh, in
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 this story, uh, and this is uh, coming
00:18:59 --> 00:19:02 from uh, some of the researchers in fact, uh,
00:19:02 --> 00:19:05 Daniel Weiss of the University of
00:19:05 --> 00:19:08 California at Berkeley, uh,
00:19:08 --> 00:19:10 has basically pointed out
00:19:11 --> 00:19:14 that something significant has happened to
00:19:14 --> 00:19:16 Andromeda to change the
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19 distribution of the satellite galaxies.
00:19:20 --> 00:19:22 Um, because half of them, uh,
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25 rather than sort of swarming around, uh,
00:19:25 --> 00:19:28 like you know, moths around a flame, half
00:19:28 --> 00:19:31 of these galaxies are actually in a plane.
00:19:31 --> 00:19:33 Uh, you know, they're
00:19:33 --> 00:19:36 basically in, in one plane. Of
00:19:36 --> 00:19:39 the space around, uh, around Andromeda, and
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41 they're all going in the same direction. And
00:19:41 --> 00:19:44 that is, uh, as, um, as
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 Daniel Weiss says, that is weird.
00:19:47 --> 00:19:49 Um, he says it was actually a total
00:19:49 --> 00:19:51 surprise to find the satellites in that
00:19:51 --> 00:19:53 configuration. And we still don't fully
00:19:53 --> 00:19:56 understand why they appear that way.
00:19:56 --> 00:19:59 Another colleague, uh, says,
00:19:59 --> 00:20:01 um, this uh, is Alessandro
00:20:01 --> 00:20:04 Savino, says it is clear,
00:20:04 --> 00:20:07 it's a clear indication of how small galaxy
00:20:07 --> 00:20:10 growth is disturbed by the influence of
00:20:10 --> 00:20:13 a massive galaxy like Andromeda.
00:20:13 --> 00:20:16 Um, and I think the, the bottom
00:20:16 --> 00:20:19 line here is that they've got much, um,
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 younger, uh, stars in them.
00:20:22 --> 00:20:25 These dwarf galaxies, uh, form
00:20:25 --> 00:20:28 their stars very early on in the history of
00:20:28 --> 00:20:29 the Andromeda galaxy, which probably goes
00:20:29 --> 00:20:32 back 12 or 13 billion years, um, and
00:20:32 --> 00:20:35 then kept on. And uh, the
00:20:35 --> 00:20:38 idea is that the,
00:20:39 --> 00:20:42 the perhaps. And they say that they
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44 really don't know what's happening, but
00:20:44 --> 00:20:46 perhaps there was a collision between
00:20:46 --> 00:20:49 Andromeda and another galaxy,
00:20:49 --> 00:20:52 uh, some billions of years ago, which
00:20:52 --> 00:20:55 caused this peculiarity
00:20:55 --> 00:20:58 of the, uh, of the, of the dwarf galaxies
00:20:58 --> 00:21:00 surrounding Andromeda. Everything about it is
00:21:00 --> 00:21:03 weird, including my, um, my account of it.
00:21:03 --> 00:21:04 Andrew Dunkley: Just
00:21:06 --> 00:21:08 uh. So they're saying it's weird. They say
00:21:08 --> 00:21:11 they don't really know what happened, but it
00:21:11 --> 00:21:14 would have to be some kind of gravitational
00:21:14 --> 00:21:16 effect or interference, wouldn't it?
00:21:16 --> 00:21:18 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. And I
00:21:18 --> 00:21:20 think that's probably what they're looking
00:21:20 --> 00:21:22 at, you know, as they try to understand how
00:21:22 --> 00:21:24 you can end up with a, uh, with a set
00:21:24 --> 00:21:27 of, uh, something like 15 or
00:21:27 --> 00:21:30 20 dwarf galaxies, all of which lie in a
00:21:30 --> 00:21:31 single plane that flies in the face of
00:21:31 --> 00:21:33 everything we understand about dwarf galaxy
00:21:33 --> 00:21:36 formation, um, and certainly
00:21:36 --> 00:21:38 is very different from what we find in our
00:21:38 --> 00:21:40 own Milky Way galaxy.
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42 Andrew Dunkley: And from what I can tell, they've tried to
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 figure this out using computer simulations
00:21:44 --> 00:21:45 and it didn't work.
00:21:46 --> 00:21:48 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there you go.
00:21:48 --> 00:21:51 And uh, that's just basically telling you
00:21:51 --> 00:21:54 that you need to put something else into the
00:21:54 --> 00:21:55 simulation and maybe it is a collision with
00:21:56 --> 00:21:58 another large galaxy, something else that's
00:21:58 --> 00:22:00 not in there already, to try and, uh,
00:22:00 --> 00:22:03 replicate what we see in the real world.
00:22:03 --> 00:22:05 Andrew Dunkley: So could that mean that if there was a
00:22:05 --> 00:22:07 collision with another large galaxy, that the
00:22:07 --> 00:22:09 result is Andromeda?
00:22:09 --> 00:22:12 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, that's. I think what you'd have to agree
00:22:12 --> 00:22:14 with that. Um,
00:22:15 --> 00:22:18 it, it's not been a, I mean the
00:22:18 --> 00:22:20 collision between Andromeda and the Milky
00:22:20 --> 00:22:22 Way, when it happens in three and a half
00:22:22 --> 00:22:24 billion years or whenever it says in the
00:22:24 --> 00:22:27 diary that that's going to happen. Uh, it's,
00:22:27 --> 00:22:30 that changes the shape of both of them.
00:22:30 --> 00:22:33 Uh, it basically you get a collision. All the
00:22:33 --> 00:22:36 shockwaves, gravitational shock waves,
00:22:36 --> 00:22:38 cause formation of
00:22:38 --> 00:22:40 supernovae. Basically, uh,
00:22:41 --> 00:22:44 form really big stars which last only a
00:22:44 --> 00:22:46 short time, then explode as supernovae. That
00:22:46 --> 00:22:49 uses up all the gas, uh, in the
00:22:49 --> 00:22:51 galaxies and you end up with what we call
00:22:52 --> 00:22:54 Milkomeda, the Milky Way
00:22:54 --> 00:22:57 Andromeda combination, which looks more like
00:22:57 --> 00:22:59 uh, what we call an elliptical galaxy. A
00:22:59 --> 00:23:01 galaxy with no, um, no gas, no
00:23:02 --> 00:23:04 star formation. Uh, and Andromeda
00:23:04 --> 00:23:07 now is not like that at all. It's a actively
00:23:07 --> 00:23:10 star forming galaxy. So the suggestion is
00:23:10 --> 00:23:12 that maybe it was a smaller object that
00:23:12 --> 00:23:14 caused this disruption to the satellite
00:23:14 --> 00:23:15 galaxies.
00:23:15 --> 00:23:18 Andrew Dunkley: It's. Is it classified as a spiral
00:23:18 --> 00:23:18 galaxy?
00:23:19 --> 00:23:21 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, it's a, it's a spiral definitely.
00:23:21 --> 00:23:24 Andrew Dunkley: Okay. Um, and so is ours. But when they
00:23:24 --> 00:23:26 get together they're just going to be boring.
00:23:26 --> 00:23:28 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, they will, they'll be shaped like a
00:23:28 --> 00:23:30 football, uh, with no spiral arms.
00:23:31 --> 00:23:32 Nothing happening, nothing to see here.
00:23:33 --> 00:23:35 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Ah, it's a bit sad really.
00:23:35 --> 00:23:37 Professor Fred Watson: I mean because they're both pretty smart
00:23:37 --> 00:23:38 looking now.
00:23:39 --> 00:23:41 Andrew Dunkley: What a pity. Oh well, um,
00:23:42 --> 00:23:44 you know, we can't stop it. We'll just have
00:23:44 --> 00:23:47 to put up with it when the time comes. How
00:23:47 --> 00:23:48 long? Three and a half billion.
00:23:48 --> 00:23:50 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, yeah, it's um, something to look
00:23:50 --> 00:23:52 forward to, you know, with trepidation
00:23:52 --> 00:23:53 perhaps.
00:23:53 --> 00:23:56 Andrew Dunkley: Yes, eventually. All right, uh, that story
00:23:56 --> 00:23:58 is uh, uh, at Cosmos
00:23:58 --> 00:24:01 magazine dot com if you'd like to read up on
00:24:01 --> 00:24:02 that one.
00:24:04 --> 00:24:07 Generic: Three, two, one.
00:24:07 --> 00:24:09 Space nuts.
00:24:09 --> 00:24:12 Andrew Dunkley: Uh, Fred, let's uh, go and visit an old
00:24:12 --> 00:24:14 friend, uh, someone who we thought had
00:24:14 --> 00:24:16 stopped writing to us. We don't know what we
00:24:16 --> 00:24:19 did wrong, but they have reached out to say
00:24:19 --> 00:24:21 hello. I'm still here. I'm alive again.
00:24:21 --> 00:24:23 Voyager 1.
00:24:23 --> 00:24:25 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, that's right, uh,
00:24:25 --> 00:24:28 20. I looked it up the other day.
00:24:28 --> 00:24:29 25,
00:24:30 --> 00:24:32 is that right? Yeah, no, 20.
00:24:33 --> 00:24:35 About 27 billion kilometers away.
00:24:36 --> 00:24:39 And the most distant human made
00:24:39 --> 00:24:42 object. I uh, think it's
00:24:42 --> 00:24:45 got uh, 22.5
00:24:45 --> 00:24:47 light hours of travel time for the
00:24:47 --> 00:24:50 commands. Um,
00:24:50 --> 00:24:53 so the. What the.
00:24:53 --> 00:24:56 Basically the story goes back in fact to
00:24:56 --> 00:24:59 uh, the 20. I uh, think.
00:24:59 --> 00:25:00 I can't remember what date it was, but it's
00:25:00 --> 00:25:03 back in November 2023. So it's
00:25:03 --> 00:25:06 um, you know, well over a year ago,
00:25:06 --> 00:25:09 uh, that um, the transmission started
00:25:09 --> 00:25:11 coming through in a gobbledygook
00:25:11 --> 00:25:14 format. Uh, and
00:25:14 --> 00:25:16 there was, I think an issue
00:25:17 --> 00:25:19 with one of the memory
00:25:19 --> 00:25:22 chips. Um, and
00:25:22 --> 00:25:25 you know, there was work done on
00:25:25 --> 00:25:28 trying to fix that, uh, which
00:25:28 --> 00:25:31 basically I think took Five months or so.
00:25:31 --> 00:25:34 Uh, and then, uh, was
00:25:34 --> 00:25:37 it in April 2024,
00:25:37 --> 00:25:40 uh there was uh, a
00:25:40 --> 00:25:42 successful uh, receipt
00:25:42 --> 00:25:45 of data,
00:25:45 --> 00:25:48 um, and that the
00:25:48 --> 00:25:50 machine was sending back things that you
00:25:50 --> 00:25:52 could actually read rather than just
00:25:52 --> 00:25:54 gobbledygook. So that was back in
00:25:54 --> 00:25:56 April 2024.
00:25:57 --> 00:26:00 But I think there's been another loss
00:26:00 --> 00:26:03 since then. Uh, and
00:26:03 --> 00:26:05 the you know, the um,
00:26:05 --> 00:26:08 difficulties that Voyager 1 has are
00:26:08 --> 00:26:11 uh, to some extent ongoing. Um,
00:26:11 --> 00:26:14 but uh, there is, you know, it's good news
00:26:14 --> 00:26:17 that uh, uh, at least we are
00:26:17 --> 00:26:19 still in some sort of communication with
00:26:19 --> 00:26:22 Voyager 1 and hopefully there's
00:26:22 --> 00:26:25 still potential for intelligible uh,
00:26:25 --> 00:26:28 signals to come back. The, the really
00:26:28 --> 00:26:30 interesting thing I guess is the, the power
00:26:30 --> 00:26:33 supply which is the radioisotope thermoele
00:26:33 --> 00:26:36 generator, which is now delivering a tiny
00:26:36 --> 00:26:38 fraction of what it delivered right at the
00:26:38 --> 00:26:40 beginning of the mission in the late 1970s.
00:26:41 --> 00:26:43 And so we've got uh, an issue
00:26:43 --> 00:26:46 there. And what NASA has done is switched off
00:26:46 --> 00:26:49 various instruments progressively so
00:26:49 --> 00:26:51 that things like the magnetometers that we
00:26:51 --> 00:26:53 call the magnetic field and things like that,
00:26:53 --> 00:26:55 I think they are now switched off so that
00:26:55 --> 00:26:58 you're saving power just for
00:26:58 --> 00:27:00 pointing the antenna, which is done by the
00:27:00 --> 00:27:03 spacecraft's thrusters and essentially
00:27:03 --> 00:27:05 sending signals backwards and forwards.
00:27:05 --> 00:27:07 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, it's uh, it's quite remarkable though
00:27:08 --> 00:27:10 after all these decades that
00:27:11 --> 00:27:13 it's still going, we still communicate with
00:27:13 --> 00:27:15 it, we can still send it information.
00:27:16 --> 00:27:16 Professor Fred Watson: Yes.
00:27:17 --> 00:27:19 Andrew Dunkley: And um, of course Voyager 2 is
00:27:19 --> 00:27:22 still out there and still going strong,
00:27:22 --> 00:27:25 although it too has had some issues. Although
00:27:25 --> 00:27:28 I think um, the most
00:27:28 --> 00:27:30 recent big issue with Voyager 2 was July
00:27:30 --> 00:27:33 2023 when a series of commands was sent
00:27:33 --> 00:27:35 to the spacecraft, causing its
00:27:35 --> 00:27:38 antenna to point away from Earth. I think
00:27:38 --> 00:27:39 we did talk about that.
00:27:39 --> 00:27:41 Professor Fred Watson: We did talk about it. That's right.
00:27:41 --> 00:27:43 Andrew Dunkley: And it stopped the uh, spacecraft from
00:27:43 --> 00:27:46 receiving commands or sending data back to
00:27:46 --> 00:27:48 Earth. And I
00:27:48 --> 00:27:51 think they managed to somehow
00:27:51 --> 00:27:54 circumvent that. Um, I,
00:27:54 --> 00:27:57 I, I believe it involved the Canberra deep
00:27:57 --> 00:27:59 space complex.
00:27:59 --> 00:28:01 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, I was just going to mention that. In
00:28:01 --> 00:28:03 fact it must have done because that Canberra
00:28:03 --> 00:28:06 deep space complex, uh, the Tidbin
00:28:06 --> 00:28:09 Billa dish, as we call it in the trade, uh,
00:28:09 --> 00:28:12 is uh, the only uh, antenna um,
00:28:12 --> 00:28:14 on Earth that can actually communicate with
00:28:14 --> 00:28:17 Voyager 2. And that's because Voyager
00:28:17 --> 00:28:19 2's at a latitude, if I remember rightly.
00:28:19 --> 00:28:22 It's about 66 degrees below
00:28:22 --> 00:28:24 the equator in terms of the direction it's
00:28:24 --> 00:28:27 going out to, which makes it invisible to
00:28:27 --> 00:28:30 the other two, uh, stations in the Deep
00:28:30 --> 00:28:33 Space, uh, network, which are in Madrid and
00:28:33 --> 00:28:36 uh, Goldstone in California. So, uh, yes,
00:28:36 --> 00:28:38 only, uh, only Tidbinbilla can see Voyager
00:28:38 --> 00:28:39 2.
00:28:39 --> 00:28:41 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, and that's how they saved it. They
00:28:41 --> 00:28:43 picked up a very faint signal.
00:28:43 --> 00:28:44 Professor Fred Watson: That's right.
00:28:44 --> 00:28:46 Andrew Dunkley: NASA was able to transmit some corrective
00:28:46 --> 00:28:49 data like, uh, to
00:28:49 --> 00:28:52 Voyager 2 and got it back online, which
00:28:52 --> 00:28:55 was very good news. Uh, and Voyager
00:28:55 --> 00:28:57 1's now back with us. So they're both still
00:28:57 --> 00:28:59 going. They're both still talking to us. We
00:28:59 --> 00:28:59 did.
00:28:59 --> 00:29:00 Professor Fred Watson: Extraordinary.
00:29:00 --> 00:29:02 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. We thought we'd offended both of them,
00:29:02 --> 00:29:04 but no, it's. It's all good. I mean, they've
00:29:04 --> 00:29:07 been alone for so long. I can understand them
00:29:07 --> 00:29:08 being a bit grumpy.
00:29:08 --> 00:29:11 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. They might
00:29:11 --> 00:29:13 like their own company though. M. They've
00:29:13 --> 00:29:15 both got music to listen to, so.
00:29:15 --> 00:29:16 Andrew Dunkley: Going different ways, aren't they?
00:29:16 --> 00:29:19 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, they are. That's the thing. Uh, Voyager
00:29:19 --> 00:29:21 2 is heading much more to the south than
00:29:21 --> 00:29:22 Voyager 1 is.
00:29:22 --> 00:29:24 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. M. It's such
00:29:24 --> 00:29:27 amazing. An amazing story for
00:29:27 --> 00:29:30 both of them, too. I mean, how
00:29:30 --> 00:29:32 far past end of mission have they survived?
00:29:32 --> 00:29:34 That's extraordinary.
00:29:34 --> 00:29:37 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. Decades. It is, it is. It's
00:29:37 --> 00:29:40 fantastic. And they, you know, eventually
00:29:40 --> 00:29:42 their batteries will run out. Those, uh,
00:29:42 --> 00:29:44 radioisotope thermal thermoelectric
00:29:44 --> 00:29:47 generators will fizzle out so that they can't
00:29:47 --> 00:29:49 even send power to the, uh, to the
00:29:49 --> 00:29:52 transmitters. But the spacecraft will keep on
00:29:52 --> 00:29:54 going because they are
00:29:55 --> 00:29:57 orbital mechanics. Maybe for billions of
00:29:57 --> 00:29:58 years. We just don't know.
00:29:58 --> 00:30:01 Andrew Dunkley: Yes. Until someone catches them in a Venus
00:30:01 --> 00:30:04 fly trap on some other planet and it's
00:30:04 --> 00:30:05 all over Red Rover. Who knows?
00:30:05 --> 00:30:06 Professor Fred Watson: Who knows?
00:30:06 --> 00:30:09 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, Great, uh, story about Voyager 1. You
00:30:09 --> 00:30:11 can, um, find that online. There's quite a
00:30:11 --> 00:30:13 few news stories about it.
00:30:13 --> 00:30:16 Professor Fred Watson: Can I just, um, add one comment?
00:30:16 --> 00:30:19 So, the Canberra deep space communication
00:30:19 --> 00:30:21 complex is 60 years old this
00:30:21 --> 00:30:22 month.
00:30:22 --> 00:30:23 Andrew Dunkley: Wow.
00:30:23 --> 00:30:24 Professor Fred Watson: There you go. I should have, should have
00:30:24 --> 00:30:27 remembered that. You did, yeah.
00:30:27 --> 00:30:29 Should have remembered it earlier. 60 years
00:30:29 --> 00:30:30 old this month.
00:30:30 --> 00:30:33 Andrew Dunkley: Yes. It took you 60 years to remember that?
00:30:35 --> 00:30:38 All right, um, we are just about
00:30:38 --> 00:30:40 done. Thanks, uh, for your company. Thank
00:30:40 --> 00:30:42 you, Fred, as always. We'll wrap it up and
00:30:42 --> 00:30:44 we'll catch you on the next episode.
00:30:44 --> 00:30:46 Professor Fred Watson: That sounds wonderful. I'll look
00:30:46 --> 00:30:47 forward to it.
00:30:47 --> 00:30:49 Andrew Dunkley: All right, we'll see you then. Professor Fred
00:30:49 --> 00:30:51 Watson, Astronomer at large. Don't forget to
00:30:51 --> 00:30:53 visit us, uh, on our website. In the
00:30:53 --> 00:30:54 meantime, you can do
00:30:54 --> 00:30:57 that@spacenutspodcast.com or spacenuts
00:30:57 --> 00:30:59 IO all sorts of things to see and do and
00:30:59 --> 00:31:02 buy there. Um, more
00:31:02 --> 00:31:04 mainly Fred's books. But you know, there's
00:31:04 --> 00:31:06 other stuff as well. Some of it's even
00:31:06 --> 00:31:09 interesting. Oh, sorry. Um,
00:31:09 --> 00:31:11 some of it's not. And I think I wrote those
00:31:11 --> 00:31:14 books. Never mind. Ah, and thanks, uh, to
00:31:14 --> 00:31:16 Huw in the studio, who couldn't be with us
00:31:16 --> 00:31:19 today because he was, um,
00:31:19 --> 00:31:22 stirring the pot around Andromeda, causing
00:31:22 --> 00:31:25 all sorts of mayhem. Typical of you.
00:31:25 --> 00:31:27 And from me, Andrew Dunkley, thanks for your
00:31:27 --> 00:31:28 company. Catch you on the very next episode
00:31:28 --> 00:31:30 of Space Nuts. Bye. Bye.
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