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.
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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-exploring-the-cosmos--2631155/support.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Andrew Dunkley: Hello again. Thanks for joining us. This is Space Nuts. My name is
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 Andrew Dunkley. Thanks for joining us. Coming up on this
00:00:05 --> 00:00:08 episode, we are going to be looking
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 at a rather amazing achievement
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 involving a. An organization who have
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 landed on the moon. And you're saying, yeah, it's been done.
00:00:16 --> 00:00:19 Not like this, it hasn't. On top of that,
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22 we've got a mission that's going past the moon
00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 that is in a little bit of trouble as well.
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 We'll also focus our attention on the Andromeda galaxy.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 And we've had some questions recently about Andromeda.
00:00:31 --> 00:00:33 Well, uh, you be interested to know that
00:00:33 --> 00:00:36 it has been suffering from interference
00:00:36 --> 00:00:39 and it wasn't us. It wasn't. We didn't do
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 it. And Voyager 1 back in the news again. That's
00:00:42 --> 00:00:45 all coming up on this episode of space
00:00:45 --> 00:00:45 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 away.
00:01:04 --> 00:01:07 It's Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer at large. Hello,
00:01:07 --> 00:01:08 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 consultants and
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 committees. The right way to 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 --> 00:01:43 is, while you were there to look at the aurora
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 borealis and the like, um,
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 on an astronomy tour, did you actually get to
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 see, uh, the planetary alignment? Or
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 couldn't you view it from that far north?
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, we could, but, uh,
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02 you're right, it's a good question because the ecliptic,
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 which is where all the planets lie, uh,
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 just like the equator, the celestial equator is very low
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 down at the latitudes we were at. The furthest north we got was to north
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 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 south. It's
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 only the top, really. The north coast of Iceland, that's within the
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 Arctic Circle. But we're also, well, in the Arctic Circle in
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 Sweden and Norway. North Cape, of course, is in
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 Norway. Uh, so, yes, your view of the
00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 sky is different. Um, what?
00:02:33 --> 00:02:36 Always. And I remember being struck by this
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 in my very, very first visit to the
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 Arctic, which was back in 2012 when we led our first
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 expedition up there. Uh, and
00:02:44 --> 00:02:47 I was struck by the fact that I could see
00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 stars which from our
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 latitude in. And I'm still thinking of
00:02:53 --> 00:02:55 the northern hemisphere from the latitude of the United Kingdom,
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 were only visible in the summertime and we were there in the
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 middle of winter. So you can see, um, at least
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 two stars of something 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, your
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 question is well made. Uh, we certainly saw
00:03:36 --> 00:03:39 Venus, Jupiter and Mars very clearly,
00:03:39 --> 00:03:41 probably Saturn, although it was quite near the
00:03:41 --> 00:03:44 horizon then. And I don't think we got a glimpse of
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 Mercury. So that parade of planets that
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 really, uh, occupied the media, uh, for us in the southern
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 hemisphere, it was actually best back in 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 it's been a
00:03:55 --> 00:03:58 hot topic within the last few days.
00:03:58 --> 00:04:00 Andrew Dunkley: The reason I ask is it's been in the news again
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 because they said that, uh, well, the
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 popular press is saying, oh, you know, the big alignment first time.
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 Yeah, last time we'll see it in 60 years, blah,
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 blah. Um, Jonti has a particular
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 problem with the way 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 --> 00:04:20 you know, don't let the truth get in the way of good story type of
00:04:20 --> 00:04:20 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 part of the
00:04:30 --> 00:04:31 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 --> 00:04:38 Yeah, I was just wondering if you got a chance to spot
00:04:38 --> 00:04:38 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 --> 00:04:47 Andrew Dunkley: I did go out and look, but where I am in town, it's. It's
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 a really bad position and I'd have to, uh, go out
00:04:50 --> 00:04:53 and find a hill and as you know, there are not that
00:04:53 --> 00:04:54 many of them around here.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 Professor Fred Watson: No, no. You're a bit, uh, a bit low on hills up there. You need
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 somebody to come and build 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 --> 00:05:10 All right. Uh, let's get onto Our first official
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 story and this one is very exciting
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 and again getting a lot of press
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 and that's been the successful landing of
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 the Blue Ghost Lunar lander
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 on the moon. Uh, this is
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 a lot different to what we were witnessing in the 60s
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 and 70s and a few of the more recent
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 missions because they were um,
00:05:33 --> 00:05:36 publicly funded and um, government
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 gazetted and all that jazz. This is a completely
00:05:39 --> 00:05:40 different 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 of
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 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 --> 00:06:03 I uh, love the name of the mission. It's not Apollo
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 or Artemis or anything. It's called Ghost
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 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 --> 00:06:15 before the spacecraft landed successfully, which it did on
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 uh, March 2, uh, Eastern Standard
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 Time, Sunday at the weekend.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 The weekend just gone. Uh, we did see some
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 images during the week from the navigation cameras which
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 uh, showed the Earth and the moon as uh, the
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 lander flew by. But the reason why this
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 lander is going to the moon or has gone to the moon
00:06:35 --> 00:06:38 is that 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 --> 00:07:03 all experiments or at least uh, things that test the
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 technology, uh, uh, basically
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08 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 --> 00:07:25 that could change because all sorts of things are
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 happening, uh, inside NASA, which we really
00:07:27 --> 00:07:30 didn't expect. Um, anyway, uh, the Launch
00:07:30 --> 00:07:33 was on the 15th of January, so it's taken a little while to get
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 there. It uh,
00:07:37 --> 00:07:40 um, the spacecraft rode into orbit on a Falcon
00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 9, a SpaceX Falcon 9, uh, and
00:07:43 --> 00:07:45 essentially uh, having gone into lunar
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 orbit, uh, earlier in February, 13th
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 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 --> 00:08:16 it? They're not going to be doing much for long from what I
00:08:16 --> 00:08:17 understand.
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 Professor Fred Watson: I think that's Right. I think the, the, you know, the essential
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 part was just 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 think
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 it's one of these things that will only last for a
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 lunar day. I need to check that. But it's that sort of time.
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 Uh, it's easy to find some really nice pictures of,
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 uh, what the sky would
00:08:47 --> 00:08:49 look like for Blue Ghost. Uh, there's a
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 very nice picture on X of a gentleman
00:08:52 --> 00:08:55 by the name of Buzz Aldrin watching the
00:08:55 --> 00:08:56 landing. Yes.
00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. He sent them a message of 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 mentioned
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 before I've had the great pleasure of meeting and interviewing
00:09:17 --> 00:09:20 him in my radio career. So that was one of the big
00:09:20 --> 00:09:21 highlights for me.
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, and one of the highlights for me was having dinner with
00:09:24 --> 00:09:24 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 about
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 that some of the time. It was a very interesting meeting, but it was very
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 stimulating. This is probably a decade ago. Yeah,
00:09:35 --> 00:09:35 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 think
00:09:41 --> 00:09:42 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 landings
00:09:53 --> 00:09:56 on other worlds, particularly Mars. I
00:09:56 --> 00:09:59 wouldn't have thought that it would be as big a
00:09:59 --> 00:10:02 deal on the moon, given that this, you know, no
00:10:02 --> 00:10:03 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 you're landing on
00:10:09 --> 00:10:12 Mars, a lot of the, uh, trajectory is dictated
00:10:12 --> 00:10:15 not just by, uh, orbital mechanics, which
00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 is how things work in space, but dictated by
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 the vagaries of the atmosphere. If you've got slightly higher pressure than
00:10:21 --> 00:10:24 you expected, you've got more braking force, and
00:10:24 --> 00:10:27 suddenly, uh, your spacecraft is heading for a
00:10:27 --> 00:10:30 different part of the surface at a higher speed than you
00:10:30 --> 00:10:33 would want or lower speed or whatever. Um, and
00:10:33 --> 00:10:35 you're right that, um, in the case of the Moon,
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 it's all about orbital mechanics, which are very, very
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 predictable. But you can imagine, you know, you've got
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 to fire those thrusters at just the right moment to
00:10:44 --> 00:10:47 break it so that when it lands on the moon, it doesn't land
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 too hard and smash up on the rocks or basically
00:10:50 --> 00:10:53 bounce off and then smash up. You've got to get
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56 things just right. So nine minutes of terror.
00:10:56 --> 00:10:59 I can sympathize with that. I think I'd feel like 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, you
00:11:10 --> 00:11:11 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, uh,
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 landing and upright. So
00:11:23 --> 00:11:26 I think, I think they were sort of saying, well,
00:11:26 --> 00:11:29 you know, even if it lands on its side, that's a success. But it's even better
00:11:29 --> 00:11:30 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 right.
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 Andrew Dunkley: I think it was the Indian mission.
00:11:37 --> 00:11:40 Professor Fred Watson: Was it, Was it Indian or Japanese? I can't remember.
00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 Um, but yeah. So it was landed in such a way that the
00:11:43 --> 00:11:44 solar panels weren't seeing the sun.
00:11:44 --> 00:11:45 Andrew Dunkley: Yes, that's right.
00:11:46 --> 00:11:48 Professor Fred Watson: So, yes, it's very important to have it the right way up.
00:11:48 --> 00:11:51 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Anyway, we wish them well. It'll be a quick visit
00:11:51 --> 00:11:54 and it paves the way
00:11:54 --> 00:11:57 for Artemis too. We still don't know when that's going to happen.
00:11:57 --> 00:12:00 Seems to be 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 space
00:12:08 --> 00:12:09 nuts.
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 Andrew Dunkley: Now, while we're talking about these kinds of, uh,
00:12:13 --> 00:12:16 commercial missions, there's another one that's in the news. This is a
00:12:16 --> 00:12:18 private mission, uh, that was heading out
00:12:19 --> 00:12:22 past the moon to the Odin asteroid,
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 the um, private Odin asteroid
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 probe. All was looking
00:12:27 --> 00:12:29 nominal until recently.
00:12:29 --> 00:12:32 Things seem to have gone 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 from,
00:12:38 --> 00:12:41 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 --> 00:12:47 founder and CEO of AstroDailyPod Forge, which is the,
00:12:47 --> 00:12:49 um, the organization that is
00:12:49 --> 00:12:52 operating the Odin spacecraft.
00:12:52 --> 00:12:55 Uh, what he said on Friday, uh, the
00:12:55 --> 00:12:58 28th of February was we don't fully
00:12:58 --> 00:13:00 understand the state of the vehicle.
00:13:00 --> 00:13:03 Uh, it's thought still though, to
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 be in a mode that means it's
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 not being fried by the light of the sun. It's
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 in an attitude in
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 regard to the sun that will
00:13:15 --> 00:13:18 not have parts of it being unduly heated,
00:13:18 --> 00:13:21 although, uh, we believe that it is
00:13:21 --> 00:13:23 tumbling. Um, and uh, you
00:13:23 --> 00:13:26 know, uh, this is not a good thing for a
00:13:26 --> 00:13:29 spacecraft, um, uh, to
00:13:30 --> 00:13:33 experience. That's one of two
00:13:33 --> 00:13:35 alternatives which I think are still valid,
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 Andrew. One is that the spacecraft is tumbling,
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 uh, which is not nice, uh, or the other
00:13:41 --> 00:13:44 is that everything's fine, but there are issues with the
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 telemetry back on Earth, their ground receivers not being
00:13:47 --> 00:13:49 properly configured or whatever. So they're
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 still basically worrying about what's. What's going
00:13:52 --> 00:13:55 on. We should check that story again, perhaps next
00:13:55 --> 00:13:56 week.
00:13:56 --> 00:13:59 Andrew Dunkley: What's the goal of the mission? They're going to visit an asteroid.
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 But what do they want 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 --> 00:14:32 we're not sure that that's the case at the moment, um,
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 this mission is basically designed to
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 focus, uh, the
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 cameras, uh, on that asteroid
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 2022 OB5, in order
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 to get a survey of the
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 surface, see what's there, take lots of
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 images, use, um, the filters in the cameras
00:14:51 --> 00:14:54 to get some idea of the surface texture and
00:14:54 --> 00:14:57 things of that sort, which you can do, particularly in the
00:14:57 --> 00:15:00 infrared wave band. But that's a precursor, uh,
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 to a second mission. This mission's called odin. The
00:15:03 --> 00:15:06 second mission is called Vestri, which will aim to
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 land on the asteroid. So that's perhaps the more
00:15:09 --> 00:15:12 ambitious one that we will be looking at down the
00:15:12 --> 00:15:14 track. Assuming that Odin, uh,
00:15:14 --> 00:15:17 pulls it off or Space Forge pulls it off, as far as
00:15:17 --> 00:15:18 odin's 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 as we
00:15:31 --> 00:15:32 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 --> 00:15:44 it's a difficult gig. But they keep on trying. And,
00:15:44 --> 00:15:47 uh, you know, not all missions are absolute failures. Even
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50 when they don't go well, there's something to learn,
00:15:50 --> 00:15:51 and 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 Fred
00:16:02 --> 00:16:03 Watson.
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 Okay, we checked all four systems and team with a Go
00:16:08 --> 00:16:09 Space Net.
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11 Okay, Fred, let's, uh, head towards
00:16:11 --> 00:16:14 Andromeda. Or is it heading towards us? Either
00:16:14 --> 00:16:17 way, uh, we. We've had
00:16:17 --> 00:16:19 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 questions
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 we got recently was is the Milky
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30 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 --> 00:16:45 now been discovered that Andromeda's um, being picked
00:16:45 --> 00:16:46 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, obviously,
00:17:14 --> 00:17:16 uh, at a distance of about 2 1/2 million light
00:17:16 --> 00:17:19 years, uh, like the Earth.
00:17:19 --> 00:17:22 Sorry, let me rephrase that.
00:17:22 --> 00:17:25 Like the Milky Way, our own
00:17:25 --> 00:17:28 galaxy, um, it's surrounded by
00:17:28 --> 00:17:30 a uh, swarm of dwarf galaxies.
00:17:31 --> 00:17:34 In fact about three or four dozen of them
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 altogether. Um, it's uh, it
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 is, uh, those dwarf galaxies,
00:17:40 --> 00:17:43 we call them satellite galaxies because they are satellites of
00:17:43 --> 00:17:45 Andromeda, uh, have been
00:17:45 --> 00:17:48 analyzed to death, uh, in a, in
00:17:48 --> 00:17:51 you know, some new research that's been carried out
00:17:51 --> 00:17:54 using the Hubble Space TeleScope still, after
00:17:54 --> 00:17:57 35 years, still doing a very, very fine
00:17:57 --> 00:18:00 job in giving us spectra and
00:18:00 --> 00:18:03 images of distant objects. So uh,
00:18:03 --> 00:18:05 the researchers have used the Hubble, uh,
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 essentially to map the motion of
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11 these dwarf galaxies, which is an extraordinary thing to be able
00:18:11 --> 00:18:14 to do, um, and look at
00:18:14 --> 00:18:16 their position in three
00:18:16 --> 00:18:19 dimensions around the uh, Andromeda
00:18:19 --> 00:18:21 galaxy. Uh, and
00:18:21 --> 00:18:24 it's comparing uh, what they
00:18:24 --> 00:18:27 found with what we know from the dwarf
00:18:27 --> 00:18:30 galaxies that orbit our own. And it's is probably a
00:18:30 --> 00:18:33 similar sort of number. It's about two dozen, I think,
00:18:33 --> 00:18:36 satellite uh, galaxies that we have. The biggest two are the Large and Small
00:18:36 --> 00:18:39 Magellanic Clouds. Uh, so you
00:18:39 --> 00:18:42 take all that, um, uh, you build a map
00:18:42 --> 00:18:45 of where these galaxies are around Andromeda and you find
00:18:45 --> 00:18:48 that 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 they're
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41 all going in the same direction. And that
00:19:41 --> 00:19:44 is, uh, as, um, as Daniel
00:19:44 --> 00:19:47 Weiss says, that is weird. Um, he
00:19:47 --> 00:19:50 says it was actually a total surprise to find
00:19:50 --> 00:19:53 the satellites in that 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 the
00:20:28 --> 00:20:31 Andromeda galaxy, which probably goes back 12 or 13 billion
00:20:31 --> 00:20:33 years, um, and then kept on.
00:20:33 --> 00:20:36 And uh, the idea
00:20:36 --> 00:20:38 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 perhaps there
00:20:44 --> 00:20:47 was a collision between Andromeda
00:20:47 --> 00:20:50 and another galaxy, uh,
00:20:50 --> 00:20:52 some billions of years ago, which caused
00:20:53 --> 00:20:55 this peculiarity of
00:20:55 --> 00:20:58 the, uh, of the, of the dwarf galaxies surrounding
00:20:58 --> 00:21:00 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 they
00:21:09 --> 00:21:12 don't really know what happened, but it would have to be
00:21:12 --> 00:21:14 some kind of gravitational effect or
00:21:14 --> 00:21:16 interference, wouldn't it?
00:21:16 --> 00:21:19 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. And I think that's
00:21:19 --> 00:21:22 probably what they're looking 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 single
00:21:30 --> 00:21:33 plane that flies in the face of everything we understand about dwarf
00:21:33 --> 00:21:36 galaxy formation, um, and
00:21:36 --> 00:21:39 certainly is very different from what we find in our own Milky Way
00:21:39 --> 00:21:40 galaxy.
00:21:40 --> 00:21:43 Andrew Dunkley: And from what I can tell, they've tried to figure this out
00:21:43 --> 00:21:45 using computer simulations 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 --> 00:21:56 simulation and maybe it is a collision with another large
00:21:56 --> 00:21:59 galaxy, something else that's not in there already, to
00:21:59 --> 00:22:02 try and, uh, replicate what we see in the
00:22:02 --> 00:22:03 real world.
00:22:03 --> 00:22:06 Andrew Dunkley: So could that mean that if there was a collision with another
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08 large galaxy, that the result is
00:22:08 --> 00:22:09 Andromeda?
00:22:09 --> 00:22:12 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, that's. I think what you'd have to agree with
00:22:12 --> 00:22:14 that. Um,
00:22:15 --> 00:22:18 it, it's not been a, I mean the
00:22:18 --> 00:22:21 collision between Andromeda and the Milky Way, when
00:22:21 --> 00:22:23 it happens in three and a half billion years or whenever
00:22:23 --> 00:22:26 it says in the diary that that's going to happen.
00:22:26 --> 00:22:29 Uh, it's, that changes the shape of
00:22:29 --> 00:22:32 both of them. Uh, it basically you get a
00:22:32 --> 00:22:35 collision. All the shockwaves, gravitational
00:22:35 --> 00:22:37 shock waves, cause
00:22:37 --> 00:22:40 formation of supernovae. Basically, uh,
00:22:41 --> 00:22:44 form really big stars which last only a
00:22:44 --> 00:22:47 short time, then explode as supernovae. That uses up all
00:22:47 --> 00:22:50 the gas, uh, in the galaxies and you end
00:22:50 --> 00:22:51 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 uh, what we call
00:22:57 --> 00:23:00 an elliptical galaxy. A galaxy with no,
00:23:00 --> 00:23:03 um, no gas, no star formation.
00:23:03 --> 00:23:06 Uh, and Andromeda now is not like that at
00:23:06 --> 00:23:09 all. It's a actively star forming galaxy. So
00:23:09 --> 00:23:11 the suggestion is that maybe it was a smaller object
00:23:12 --> 00:23:14 that 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 football,
00:23:29 --> 00:23:32 uh, with no spiral arms. Nothing happening, nothing
00:23:32 --> 00:23:32 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 looking
00:23:37 --> 00:23:38 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 long? Three and
00:23:47 --> 00:23:48 a half billion.
00:23:48 --> 00:23:51 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, yeah, it's um, something to look forward to, you
00:23:51 --> 00:23:53 know, with trepidation 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 --> 00:24:15 friend, uh, someone who we thought had stopped writing
00:24:15 --> 00:24:18 to us. We don't know what we did wrong, but they
00:24:18 --> 00:24:20 have reached out to say hello. I'm still here. I'm
00:24:20 --> 00:24:23 alive again. 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 --> 00:25:01 I can't remember what date it was, but it's back in November
00:25:01 --> 00:25:04 2023. So it's um, you know,
00:25:04 --> 00:25:07 well over a year ago, uh, that
00:25:07 --> 00:25:10 um, the transmission started coming through
00:25:10 --> 00:25:13 in a gobbledygook format. Uh,
00:25:13 --> 00:25:16 and there was, I think an
00:25:16 --> 00:25:18 issue with one of the
00:25:19 --> 00:25:21 memory chips. Um,
00:25:21 --> 00:25:24 and you know, there was
00:25:24 --> 00:25:26 work done on trying to fix
00:25:26 --> 00:25:29 that, uh, which basically I think
00:25:29 --> 00:25:32 took Five months or so. Uh, and
00:25:32 --> 00:25:35 then, uh, was it in
00:25:35 --> 00:25:38 April 2024, uh
00:25:38 --> 00:25:40 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 --> 00:25:51 machine was sending back things that you could actually read
00:25:51 --> 00:25:54 rather than just gobbledygook. So that was back
00:25:54 --> 00:25:56 in 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 --> 00:26:20 still in some sort of communication with Voyager
00:26:20 --> 00:26:22 1 and hopefully there's still
00:26:23 --> 00:26:25 potential for intelligible uh,
00:26:25 --> 00:26:28 signals to come back. The, the really
00:26:28 --> 00:26:31 interesting thing I guess is the, the power supply which is
00:26:31 --> 00:26:34 the radioisotope thermoele generator,
00:26:34 --> 00:26:37 which is now delivering a tiny fraction of what
00:26:37 --> 00:26:39 it delivered right at the beginning of the mission in the late
00:26:39 --> 00:26:42 1970s. And so we've got
00:26:43 --> 00:26:45 uh, an issue there. And what NASA has done is switched
00:26:45 --> 00:26:47 off various instruments
00:26:48 --> 00:26:50 progressively so that things like the
00:26:50 --> 00:26:53 magnetometers that we call the magnetic field and things like that,
00:26:53 --> 00:26:56 I think they are now switched off so that you're saving
00:26:56 --> 00:26:59 power just for pointing the
00:26:59 --> 00:27:01 antenna, which is done by the spacecraft's thrusters
00:27:01 --> 00:27:04 and essentially sending signals backwards and
00:27:04 --> 00:27:05 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 it,
00:27:13 --> 00:27:15 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, although
00:27:22 --> 00:27:25 it too has had some issues. Although I
00:27:25 --> 00:27:28 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 receiving
00:27:43 --> 00:27:46 commands or sending data back to Earth.
00:27:47 --> 00:27:50 And I think they managed
00:27:50 --> 00:27:52 to somehow circumvent that.
00:27:52 --> 00:27:55 Um, I, I, I believe
00:27:55 --> 00:27:57 it involved the Canberra deep space
00:27:58 --> 00:27:59 complex.
00:27:59 --> 00:28:02 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, I was just going to mention that. In fact it must have
00:28:02 --> 00:28:04 done because that Canberra deep space
00:28:04 --> 00:28:07 complex, uh, the Tidbin Billa dish, as we
00:28:07 --> 00:28:09 call it in the trade, uh, is
00:28:10 --> 00:28:13 uh, the only uh, antenna um, on Earth that can
00:28:13 --> 00:28:15 actually communicate with Voyager 2.
00:28:15 --> 00:28:18 And that's because Voyager 2's at a latitude, if I remember
00:28:18 --> 00:28:21 rightly. It's about 66 degrees
00:28:21 --> 00:28:24 below the equator in terms of the direction
00:28:24 --> 00:28:26 it's going out to, which makes it
00:28:27 --> 00:28:29 invisible to the other two, uh, stations in
00:28:29 --> 00:28:32 the Deep Space, uh, network, which are in
00:28:32 --> 00:28:35 Madrid and uh, Goldstone in California.
00:28:35 --> 00:28:38 So, uh, yes, only, uh, only Tidbinbilla can
00:28:38 --> 00:28:39 see Voyager 2.
00:28:39 --> 00:28:42 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, and that's how they saved it. They picked up a very
00:28:42 --> 00:28:43 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 going. They're both still
00:28:57 --> 00:28:59 talking to us. We did.
00:28:59 --> 00:29:00 Professor Fred Watson: Extraordinary.
00:29:00 --> 00:29:03 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. We thought we'd offended both of them, but no, it's. It's
00:29:03 --> 00:29:06 all good. I mean, they've been alone for so long. I can
00:29:06 --> 00:29:08 understand them being a bit grumpy.
00:29:08 --> 00:29:11 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. They might
00:29:11 --> 00:29:14 like their own company though. M. They've both got music
00:29:14 --> 00:29:15 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 2 is heading
00:29:19 --> 00:29:22 much more to the south than 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 their
00:29:40 --> 00:29:43 batteries will run out. Those, uh, radioisotope thermal
00:29:43 --> 00:29:46 thermoelectric generators will fizzle out so that
00:29:46 --> 00:29:49 they can't even send power to the, uh, to
00:29:49 --> 00:29:52 the transmitters. But the spacecraft will keep on
00:29:52 --> 00:29:54 going because they are
00:29:55 --> 00:29:58 orbital mechanics. Maybe for billions of years. We just don't
00:29:58 --> 00:29:58 know.
00:29:58 --> 00:30:01 Andrew Dunkley: Yes. Until someone catches them in a Venus fly trap
00:30:01 --> 00:30:04 on some other planet and it's all over Red
00:30:04 --> 00:30:05 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 --> 00:30:12 can, um, find that online. There's quite a few
00:30:12 --> 00:30:13 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 --> 00:30:26 Professor Fred Watson: There you go. I should have, should have remembered that. You
00:30:26 --> 00:30:29 did, yeah. Should have remembered it earlier.
00:30:29 --> 00:30:30 60 years 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 --> 00:30:41 done. Thanks, uh, for your company. Thank you, Fred, as always.
00:30:41 --> 00:30:44 We'll wrap it up and 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 --> 00:30:50 Andrew Dunkley: All right, we'll see you then. Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer at
00:30:50 --> 00:30:53 large. Don't forget to visit us, uh, on our website.
00:30:53 --> 00:30:56 In the meantime, you can do that@spacenutspodcast.com or
00:30:56 --> 00:30:59 spacenuts IO all sorts of things to see
00:30:59 --> 00:31:01 and do and buy there.
00:31:01 --> 00:31:04 Um, more mainly Fred's books. But you know, there's other
00:31:04 --> 00:31:07 stuff as well. Some of it's even interesting.
00:31:07 --> 00:31:10 Oh, sorry. Um, some of it's
00:31:10 --> 00:31:13 not. And I think I wrote those books. Never mind.
00:31:13 --> 00:31:15 Ah, and thanks, uh, to Huw in the studio, who
00:31:16 --> 00:31:18 couldn't be with us today because he was,
00:31:18 --> 00:31:21 um, stirring the pot around
00:31:21 --> 00:31:23 Andromeda, causing all sorts of mayhem.
00:31:24 --> 00:31:27 Typical of you. And from me, Andrew Dunkley, thanks for your
00:31:27 --> 00:31:30 company. Catch you on the very next episode of Space Nuts. Bye.
00:31:30 --> 00:31:30 Bye.
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