In this captivating episode of Space Nuts, hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson delve into the latest astronomical discoveries and intriguing space news. Join them as they explore new evidence suggesting that Mars once boasted vast oceans, the astonishing characteristics of the fastest spinning asteroid ever recorded, and the unprecedented evacuation of the International Space Station due to a medical issue.
Episode Highlights:
- Mars’ Ancient Oceans: Andrew and Fred discuss groundbreaking research revealing that Mars may have once had oceans comparable in size to Earth's Arctic Ocean. They explore the implications of this discovery and what it means for the search for life on the Red Planet.
- The Fastest Spinning Asteroid: The hosts introduce the asteroid 2025 MN45, which spins at an incredible rate of one rotation every 1 minute and 53 seconds. They discuss the significance of this finding and what it reveals about the asteroid's composition and history.
- ISS Medical Evacuation: Andrew and Fred provide insights into the first-ever crew evacuation from the International Space Station, prompted by a medical issue. They discuss the implications of this event and the protocols in place for astronaut safety.
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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.
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:01 Andrew Dunkley: Hi there. Thanks for joining us on another
00:00:01 --> 00:00:04 episode of Space Nuts. Great to have your
00:00:04 --> 00:00:06 company. My name is Andrew Dunkley, your host
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 and I uh, hope you can stick around because
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 we've got a jam packed show. We're
00:00:11 --> 00:00:13 once again going to Mars because
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 they've looked uh, at some new evidence that
00:00:17 --> 00:00:19 uh, does suggest Mars oceans may have
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22 been vast. That is really
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 exciting news. We're also going to look at
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 the fastest spinning asteroid yet discovered.
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 This one's uh, really in a spin.
00:00:29 --> 00:00:32 It's uh, making everybody dizzy. And the
00:00:32 --> 00:00:35 evacuation of the International Space Station
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 uh, due to ill health. We'll see if we can
00:00:38 --> 00:00:39 get uh, some news on that because that's
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 actually happening as Fred and I are uh,
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 recording today. That's all coming up
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 on this edition of Space Nuts. 15
00:00:48 --> 00:00:49 seconds. Guidance is internal.
00:00:50 --> 00:00:52 Voice Over Guy: 10, 9. Ignition
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 sequence start. Space Nuts. 5, 4,
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 3. 2. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4,
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 3, 2, 1. Space Nuts astronauts
00:01:01 --> 00:01:02 report it feels good.
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 Andrew Dunkley: And he's back again to furnish us with his
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 knowledge. He is Professor Fred Watson,
00:01:08 --> 00:01:09 Astronomer at large. Hello Fred.
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 Professor Fred Watson: Hello Andrew. I was just doing a quick
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 calculation there for a number that I want to
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 use um, later in the chat.
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 Andrew Dunkley: Now I need to apologise in advance because
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 ah, they're working across the road and I
00:01:24 --> 00:01:26 think they're using uh, dynamite because
00:01:27 --> 00:01:30 it's pretty noisy um, but
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 hopefully it won't mess me up too much. I can
00:01:33 --> 00:01:34 hear it but I don't know if it's coming
00:01:34 --> 00:01:36 through the system. It's got all sorts of
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 filters but um, some things you can't stop.
00:01:40 --> 00:01:40 Professor Fred Watson: Um.
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 Andrew Dunkley: Now Fred, I did want to actually mention a
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 couple of things before we start on our
00:01:44 --> 00:01:47 topics because uh, I meant to do this last
00:01:47 --> 00:01:50 week for our first show back of the year just
00:01:50 --> 00:01:52 to highlight some of the things that are
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 coming up in 2026 that we can look forward to
00:01:54 --> 00:01:56 and that you and I will probably talk about.
00:01:56 --> 00:01:59 The Artemis 2 launch is
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02 slated. Uh, whether or not it'll be delayed
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 again remains to be seen. But um, that will
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 see a crew doing a lap around the moon,
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 uh, and that'll be the first time humans have
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 been back uh, in orbit around the moon
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 since the 70s which uh, is
00:02:15 --> 00:02:18 exciting and probably too long but um,
00:02:18 --> 00:02:20 that'll be good. Um, this one I know will
00:02:20 --> 00:02:23 excite you. The Grace Roman Space Telescope
00:02:23 --> 00:02:26 is going to be launched. That one um,
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 is going to um, opened so many doors for
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 us I suspect, um, the
00:02:31 --> 00:02:34 PLATO mission, uh, which will be searching
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 for rocky planets. It'll uh, be doing a lot
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 more than that. But that's one of the things
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 that it's being set out to do. Uh,
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 China is to launch its own space
00:02:43 --> 00:02:46 telescope as well, um, in the hunt
00:02:46 --> 00:02:48 for dark matter and dark energy.
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 And there's another mission that's going to
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 be studying uh, the moon and Mars. Well,
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 several missions, not just one. Um, more
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 Chinese and Japanese missions involved there.
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 And I think this is one you and I have talked
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 about before. The Smile mission, uh, which
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 will be studying Earth's magnetic field and
00:03:06 --> 00:03:08 how the sun interacts with our uh,
00:03:08 --> 00:03:11 atmosphere, uh, is um, due to be launched
00:03:11 --> 00:03:12 this year as well. I'm sure there's a lot
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 more going on than that, but there's some of
00:03:14 --> 00:03:17 the highlights of 2026 so
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 uh, we'll have a lot to talk about.
00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 Professor Fred Watson: Fred, could I add a couple more as well?
00:03:21 --> 00:03:22 Andrew Dunkley: Oh, go for it.
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 Professor Fred Watson: Um, we've just uh, heard that the Pandora
00:03:25 --> 00:03:28 spacecraft has entered orbit, uh, which I
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 think is a spacecraft, uh, again looking
00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 um, looking at exoplanets to try
00:03:34 --> 00:03:36 and sort of tell us a bit more about how
00:03:36 --> 00:03:39 their atmospheres might reveal stuff. Um,
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42 China has just filed for 200
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 satellites constellation with the
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 International Telecommunications Union which
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 is. Yeah, yeah, well it's not the biggest
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 yet. The biggest was back in 2020 when the
00:03:52 --> 00:03:54 Rwandan government filed for over
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 300. Um, uh, since then
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 they've launched one cubesat, I think. So,
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 um, that looked like a filing that
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 getting your foot in the door. Uh, and just
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 turning to nature. We've got some interesting
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 events coming up. Uh, March 3rd, total
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 eclipse of the Moon visible certainly from
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 our hemisphere in Australia, not sure about
00:04:16 --> 00:04:18 North America and Europe. Um,
00:04:18 --> 00:04:21 there's uh, towards the end of the year and
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 this will happen twice, uh, which is great
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 cause you can see it on different sides of
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 the Earth. I think it's October, sometime in
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 October and sometime in November there will
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 be an occultation of the planet Jupiter by
00:04:34 --> 00:04:35 the Moon. That means the moon will pass in
00:04:35 --> 00:04:38 front of Jupiter and certainly for us in
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 November here in Australia it will be during
00:04:40 --> 00:04:42 the daytime. So get your binoculars out
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 during the daytime, check out the moon and
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 watch for Jupiter disappearing.
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 Andrew Dunkley: Oh, that'll be good. Yeah,
00:04:49 --> 00:04:50 that'd be a good one for a backyard
00:04:50 --> 00:04:51 telescope, wouldn't it?
00:04:51 --> 00:04:53 Professor Fred Watson: Absolutely perfect, yes.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 Andrew Dunkley: Awesome. Um, I had my
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 6 year old granddaughter here uh, the other
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 day and uh, the moon was, was out in the
00:05:02 --> 00:05:05 east and um, it was still daytime but it was
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 pretty prominent. So I grabbed the telescope
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10 and gave her a look and uh, I tried to
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 explain to her what craters were and
00:05:13 --> 00:05:14 she struggled with the concept. But she
00:05:14 --> 00:05:17 eventually I think figured it out. But uh,
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 yeah, took a couple of photos of her looking
00:05:19 --> 00:05:20 through the telescope. She was very excited
00:05:22 --> 00:05:23 which she sent to me.
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 Professor Fred Watson: It was uh, lovely to see them, Andrew. Yeah,
00:05:25 --> 00:05:27 yeah, lovely, lovely shots. A youngster
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 looking through a telescop with granddad in
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 the background is great. Yeah, yeah.
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 Andrew Dunkley: Uh, she's got blonde hair and blue eyes and
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 her brothers and sisters are all brown haired
00:05:36 --> 00:05:38 and brown eyed. So. Okay,
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 she, she seems to have picked up Judy's side
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 of the family genes because Judy's blondie,
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 blonde with blue eyes. But um, she's the only
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 one in the, in the family that's, that's gone
00:05:49 --> 00:05:52 that, that way. It happens though, doesn't
00:05:52 --> 00:05:53 it? It's just the way it is.
00:05:53 --> 00:05:53 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
00:05:53 --> 00:05:54 Andrew Dunkley: That's DNA.
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 Um, okay Fred, uh,
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 let's get stuck into it because uh, we're
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 heading off to Mars and we're
00:06:03 --> 00:06:06 doing this because of a study that's just
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 been published. Uh, in fact in the
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 last week, uh, or two about uh,
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 observations of Mars that suggest
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 that its oceans were once vast. Now
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 we always knew there was probably surface
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 water but we didn't really know whether they
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 were, you know, pockets or separate
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 oceans or what. But now they're thinking
00:06:28 --> 00:06:29 the oceans might have been
00:06:31 --> 00:06:31 enormous.
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, yes, that's right. And I mean, you know,
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 we revisit this story probably on average
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 once every month or two. Uh, the
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 last time we covered this, and I
00:06:45 --> 00:06:47 wrote it up actually in um, an Australian
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 Geographic article, um, not that I did the
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 research, but this is other people's research
00:06:51 --> 00:06:54 and that was pointing in the same direction.
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 Andrew. It was um, a group that looked at the
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 way um, rivers, ancient rivers on Mars, uh,
00:07:00 --> 00:07:02 meandered, uh, because you can learn
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 something from the meandering about the
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 size of the body of water that they're
00:07:07 --> 00:07:10 emptying into. And they came to the same
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 conclusion. The river meanders tell you that
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 there was a large body of water at the end of
00:07:15 --> 00:07:17 it at the mouth of these rivers, uh, rather
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 than just a few puddles or a few lakes and
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 things of that sort. Uh, and this new piece
00:07:22 --> 00:07:25 uh, of work, um, whilst it's a different,
00:07:25 --> 00:07:28 uh, you know, it's got a different emphasis,
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 comes up with exactly the same answer. Uh,
00:07:31 --> 00:07:34 and it's scientists uh, who have looked uh,
00:07:34 --> 00:07:37 at the, I remember rightly there in
00:07:37 --> 00:07:40 uh, in Switzerland. Yeah, University of Bern,
00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 uh, it's scientists who've looked at the
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 region around Valles, uh,
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 Marineris, you know, that great huge
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 chasm in the, uh, in the surface of
00:07:51 --> 00:07:54 Mars. Near Mars's equator. Uh, something that
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 makes the Grand Canyon look like a bit of a
00:07:57 --> 00:07:59 scratch on the, on the surface of the Earth.
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Is it right that the Grand Canyon would
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 fit into one of its tributaries or something?
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 Professor Fred Watson: That's right. I think that's correct, yeah.
00:08:05 --> 00:08:06 Andrew Dunkley: Amazing.
00:08:06 --> 00:08:08 Professor Fred Watson: Um, so they've been looking in that region
00:08:08 --> 00:08:10 and certainly on the northern side and the
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 northern flanks there are valleys that
00:08:14 --> 00:08:17 um, sort of open out onto the plains of Mars.
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 Because that uh, Valles Marineris is kind
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 of right at the start of the highland areas
00:08:22 --> 00:08:24 of the southern hemisphere of Mars. Mars has
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 got this dichotomy. The northern hemisphere
00:08:26 --> 00:08:29 is flat and low, southern hemisphere 3km
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 higher on average, full of craters, mountains
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 and all around rest of it. Uh, so um, uh,
00:08:34 --> 00:08:36 um, what they've done is they've looked at
00:08:37 --> 00:08:39 regions, uh, where, you know, where there's
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 this transition from the mountainous
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 highlands of the south to the
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 lowlands of the north. And they've looked
00:08:47 --> 00:08:50 very carefully at uh, data from
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 uh, several orbiting spacecraft, um, I
00:08:53 --> 00:08:56 guess Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is one and
00:08:56 --> 00:08:58 some of the other ones, um, actually even um,
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 uh, um, ESO's
00:09:01 --> 00:09:04 ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. So, uh,
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 Mars Express, another ESA, sorry, not ESO,
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 ESA, uh, European Space Agency, Another
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13 um, uh, uh, orbiting spacecraft. They've
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 taken the data from these, looked
00:09:15 --> 00:09:18 at the height, the
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 topography and looked at the
00:09:20 --> 00:09:22 geomorphology. Let me get it right.
00:09:22 --> 00:09:24 Geomorphological, um,
00:09:24 --> 00:09:27 um, features that they can find.
00:09:28 --> 00:09:30 What have they spotted? They've spotted,
00:09:30 --> 00:09:33 ah, a whole succession of
00:09:33 --> 00:09:36 ancient river deltas, um, this
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 is to say regions where a river mouth
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 opened into what they're calling now
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 an ocean, uh, and deposited
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 um, its sediments. The sediments out of the
00:09:47 --> 00:09:49 river fall down to the floor, uh, of the
00:09:49 --> 00:09:52 ocean and build up basically
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 a rock form, uh, which is preserved today.
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 It's a kind of fossilized river delta.
00:09:57 --> 00:10:00 There's something similar going on, uh, as
00:10:00 --> 00:10:01 you and I have spoken about many times at
00:10:01 --> 00:10:04 Jezero Crater, which is why, um,
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 perseverance is there, because there's a
00:10:06 --> 00:10:08 river delta there. But I think these are on a
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11 much larger scale. And um, the
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 great thing is that when you look at them,
00:10:15 --> 00:10:17 they sort of define a shoreline,
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 um, because these are all occurring
00:10:21 --> 00:10:24 at the same topographical height in
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 Mars's geography. And so they
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 basically uh, define a shoreline. And that
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 shoreline tells you that um, there would have
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 been a lot of water in Mars's northern
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 hemisphere for the water level to reach the
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 height that we find those deltas at.
00:10:40 --> 00:10:43 Uh, so really? Yeah, really nice piece
00:10:43 --> 00:10:45 of Work, uh, done with characteristic
00:10:45 --> 00:10:48 Swiss precision, I think. Uh, that's been
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 widely reported. Um, there's several
00:10:50 --> 00:10:53 articles, uh, on the science news feeds,
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56 um, which basically support this idea.
00:10:56 --> 00:10:58 Very nice piece of research indeed.
00:10:59 --> 00:11:02 Andrew Dunkley: And they think it was as big as
00:11:02 --> 00:11:05 the Arctic Ocean on Earth, just by
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 comparison. And how big as the Arctic Ocean?
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 It's 14 million square kilometers or
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 five and a half million square miles
00:11:13 --> 00:11:16 big, uh, in size. So that's a lot of
00:11:16 --> 00:11:18 water on Mars and uh, a lot of it's still
00:11:18 --> 00:11:19 there, Fred.
00:11:19 --> 00:11:21 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, that's right. We um, know from
00:11:21 --> 00:11:23 particularly, uh, the Phoenix mission that
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 just scraped the surface in the Martian
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 Arctic and sure enough there was permafrost
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 underneath. So a lot of it's still there.
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 There's still water locked up in the two ice
00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 caps of Mars. Um, but probably
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 not. Well, I don't know. It's actually really
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 interesting. I do remember reading quite some
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 time ago that if you thawed out even just the
00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 Antarctic ice cap of Mars, you'd cover the
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 whole planet to a depth of several meters.
00:11:46 --> 00:11:49 Um, now whether that still holds good with
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 what we've discovered since then, that was
00:11:51 --> 00:11:52 quite an old, I think that was probably 20
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 years, 15 years ago, so that that comment
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 was made. It would be interesting to know how
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 we evaluate that now. But I think it's still
00:11:59 --> 00:12:02 true, uh, that a lot of that water is still
00:12:02 --> 00:12:02 there.
00:12:02 --> 00:12:05 Andrew Dunkley: Ah, yeah, it is, uh, a
00:12:05 --> 00:12:06 fascinating story.
00:12:06 --> 00:12:07 Professor Fred Watson: Water means life.
00:12:08 --> 00:12:11 Andrew Dunkley: Well, yes, yes, we've said that many times.
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 And you just don't know, do you?
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 Professor Fred Watson: You don't. Yeah.
00:12:15 --> 00:12:17 Andrew Dunkley: Although the, uh, the mission to retrieve
00:12:17 --> 00:12:20 those um, cylinders that contain
00:12:21 --> 00:12:22 potential evidence of that.
00:12:22 --> 00:12:23 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 Andrew Dunkley: Has been scotched. So it's just going to sit
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 in abeyance for um, an
00:12:28 --> 00:12:29 indefinite period.
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 Professor Fred Watson: So, yeah, I think, um,
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 so this is news that, um, the Senate have
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 um, basically agreed with the White House in
00:12:38 --> 00:12:41 saying that um, the Mars Sample Return
00:12:41 --> 00:12:44 Mission, uh, should be canceled. Uh,
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 and so that will probably go through. It's
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 not been voted on yet, I don't think. Um,
00:12:49 --> 00:12:51 and so that means, yes, we've got these
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 canisters on Mars, uh, carefully dropped by
00:12:53 --> 00:12:56 perseverance, uh, but
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 with a joint European Space Agency NASA
00:12:59 --> 00:13:02 mission to retrieve them, uh, which, whose
00:13:02 --> 00:13:05 cost has blown out. Uh, we've talked about
00:13:05 --> 00:13:07 this before, uh, and not perhaps
00:13:07 --> 00:13:10 surprising that it's now had a line drawn
00:13:10 --> 00:13:12 under it. Now that's bad
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 news because we really would like to get hold
00:13:15 --> 00:13:16 of these samples. There's one in particular
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 that may contain actually fossilized
00:13:18 --> 00:13:21 microbes. Uh, you know, um,
00:13:21 --> 00:13:24 so it's um, there's uh, every keenness to do
00:13:24 --> 00:13:27 that. Um, um, and I think it
00:13:27 --> 00:13:30 will. There'll certainly be a revisiting
00:13:30 --> 00:13:33 of this idea. Esa, I think, is still going
00:13:33 --> 00:13:34 ahead with their half of the bargain. Which
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 was, I think, to build the orbiter which
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 would actually bring the samples back to
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 Mars. NASA's part was gathering them up on
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 the surface and sending them up to orbit
00:13:43 --> 00:13:45 around Mars. Uh, so, you know,
00:13:46 --> 00:13:49 uh, it's bad news. There's a bright side to
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 it though, in that the money that's being
00:13:51 --> 00:13:52 saved will probably go to some of the other
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 missions that are being planned.
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 Name your favorite planet. You might get some
00:13:57 --> 00:13:59 good news out of this. I know your favorite
00:13:59 --> 00:14:02 and probably mine too, is Mars. Uh, but,
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 um, anyway, we'll see what happens. I
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 wouldn't write, uh, the Mars sample return
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 off altogether in my flights of
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 fantasy. Last night, while my,
00:14:12 --> 00:14:15 uh, respiratory tract infection was
00:14:15 --> 00:14:18 making me cough all night, I was thinking
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 maybe the Chinese could bring them back
00:14:21 --> 00:14:23 because I think they're planning a sample
00:14:23 --> 00:14:26 return mission as well. So maybe we do a deal
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28 there. Which would be fabulous international
00:14:28 --> 00:14:29 cooperation.
00:14:29 --> 00:14:31 Andrew Dunkley: It would. It would indeed. Of course, we
00:14:31 --> 00:14:33 could always start the conspiracy and say,
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 what does NASA and the US Government know
00:14:35 --> 00:14:36 that they're not telling us?
00:14:38 --> 00:14:39 Hence no return. Yeah, yeah.
00:14:39 --> 00:14:42 Professor Fred Watson: Be careful what you, what you say, Andrew.
00:14:42 --> 00:14:45 Andrew Dunkley: No, look, I'm just kidding around, but, uh,
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 it's just money, isn't it? That's, that's the
00:14:48 --> 00:14:48 thing.
00:14:48 --> 00:14:50 Professor Fred Watson: It's all about money. That's right. It's not
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 about finding something with legs that you
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 don't want anybody to know about.
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 Andrew Dunkley: Yes, that's been done in a lot of science
00:14:57 --> 00:14:57 fiction films.
00:14:57 --> 00:14:59 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, it has. And um.
00:14:59 --> 00:15:02 Andrew Dunkley: Yes, all right. Great story about
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 the oceans of Mars though. If you'd like to
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06 check it out, it's on the Phys p h y
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 s.org website. Or you can read the
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11 paper that's been published in the journal
00:15:11 --> 00:15:13 NPJ Space Exploration.
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 This is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and
00:15:16 --> 00:15:17 Professor Fred Watson.
00:15:20 --> 00:15:21 Roger, in your labs right here.
00:15:21 --> 00:15:24 Also Space Nuts to our
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27 next story, Fred. And this
00:15:27 --> 00:15:29 is, uh, a really good one for a couple of
00:15:29 --> 00:15:31 reasons. It's something we haven't seen
00:15:31 --> 00:15:34 before, but it also involves the, uh,
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36 Rubin Observatory, which, um,
00:15:37 --> 00:15:40 has already, uh, done things that,
00:15:40 --> 00:15:43 uh, other observatories have not been able
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 to do and promises to do so much more.
00:15:46 --> 00:15:48 This is the fastest spinning asteroid yet
00:15:48 --> 00:15:50 discovered. And a couple of headlines I've
00:15:50 --> 00:15:53 read suggested why hasn't it thrown itself
00:15:54 --> 00:15:56 to pieces because of the speed at which it's
00:15:56 --> 00:15:59 rotating and
00:15:59 --> 00:16:02 the rate is rather high when you look at what
00:16:02 --> 00:16:04 the average asteroid does.
00:16:04 --> 00:16:07 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, so it is a record breaker.
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10 It's the fastest spinning asteroid
00:16:10 --> 00:16:13 for its size. Uh, because I think
00:16:13 --> 00:16:16 smaller things can spin faster than this.
00:16:16 --> 00:16:19 It's uh, 710 meters long, nearly
00:16:19 --> 00:16:22 three quarters of a kilometer. Uh, so
00:16:22 --> 00:16:24 it's not a small asteroid at all. This
00:16:24 --> 00:16:27 is quite a large one. Uh, and
00:16:27 --> 00:16:30 it spins at the rate of one rotation
00:16:30 --> 00:16:33 every one minute 53
00:16:33 --> 00:16:36 seconds. So that
00:16:36 --> 00:16:38 is one heck of a spin. So that's its day
00:16:38 --> 00:16:41 length, Andrew. If you were standing on it,
00:16:41 --> 00:16:43 your day will be 1 minute 53 seconds. Seconds
00:16:43 --> 00:16:46 night and day, not 24 hours. Um,
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49 but uh, you're absolutely right. I think it's
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 interesting for two reasons. One is exactly
00:16:52 --> 00:16:55 as you've said. It underlines, uh, just
00:16:55 --> 00:16:57 how powerful the Rubin Observatory is going
00:16:57 --> 00:17:00 to be. The observations of
00:17:00 --> 00:17:03 this object were made during the
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 sort of commissioning period for the
00:17:05 --> 00:17:07 telescope's instruments, which was earlier
00:17:07 --> 00:17:10 last year, April and May 2025. Uh,
00:17:10 --> 00:17:13 and um, that you know, that um,
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 as you probably remember, I think they
00:17:15 --> 00:17:18 released uh, uh, information saying they got.
00:17:18 --> 00:17:19 They discovered more than a thousand
00:17:19 --> 00:17:22 asteroids in 10 hours of observing, which is
00:17:22 --> 00:17:25 pretty fantastic. Uh, the telescope's
00:17:25 --> 00:17:27 capabilities will allow it to survey the
00:17:27 --> 00:17:29 entire southern sky every three
00:17:29 --> 00:17:32 nights, uh, with an eight meter class
00:17:32 --> 00:17:34 telescope. That is an astonishing achievement
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 and we.
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39 Andrew Dunkley: Must find something incredible.
00:17:40 --> 00:17:42 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, we will. Yeah, there's going to be all
00:17:42 --> 00:17:44 kinds of things that come out of the
00:17:44 --> 00:17:46 woodwork. Uh, it's what we call, um,
00:17:47 --> 00:17:50 uh, sort of time sensitive astronomy or
00:17:50 --> 00:17:51 transient astronomy. You're looking for
00:17:51 --> 00:17:54 things that either move or change in the sky
00:17:54 --> 00:17:56 and it's going to be so good at finding them.
00:17:56 --> 00:17:59 And um. Yeah. So the real
00:17:59 --> 00:18:01 observing, uh, campaign, the Large
00:18:01 --> 00:18:04 Synoptic Survey, uh, will start
00:18:04 --> 00:18:07 uh, sometime this year, uh, sort of when
00:18:07 --> 00:18:10 they're ready to hit the go button. Uh, but I
00:18:10 --> 00:18:12 think everybody at the Rubin is pretty happy
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 with the way things are going. Um, and just
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 to sort of highlight that, you know,
00:18:18 --> 00:18:21 it's a telescope with this kind of capability
00:18:21 --> 00:18:24 to make many observations over a short period
00:18:24 --> 00:18:26 of time of the same area of sky. That has
00:18:26 --> 00:18:29 allowed uh, the scientists to
00:18:29 --> 00:18:32 discover the very rapid rotation
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 of this asteroid. Because what you have to
00:18:34 --> 00:18:37 produce, uh, to look at the way an asteroid
00:18:37 --> 00:18:39 rotates is what's called a light curve. You
00:18:39 --> 00:18:41 look at the way its brightness changes. Uh,
00:18:41 --> 00:18:44 because most asteroids, asteroids are quite
00:18:44 --> 00:18:46 asymmetric. They're either shaped like a
00:18:46 --> 00:18:48 potato or a dumbbell. Very, uh, few are
00:18:48 --> 00:18:51 anything remotely spherical. Um, uh,
00:18:51 --> 00:18:53 this particular one is I think Quite
00:18:53 --> 00:18:56 elongated. And so as it rotates,
00:18:56 --> 00:18:59 uh, different sides of it catch the
00:18:59 --> 00:19:01 sunlight and you get a variation in the light
00:19:01 --> 00:19:04 that we see from it. Uh, and so that uh,
00:19:04 --> 00:19:06 has allowed, because it's, you know, it's
00:19:06 --> 00:19:08 only 1 minute 53 seconds for one
00:19:09 --> 00:19:11 complete revolution that has allowed the
00:19:11 --> 00:19:14 scientists to determine that fact,
00:19:14 --> 00:19:17 um, to the asteroid itself. You're right,
00:19:17 --> 00:19:19 it's interesting. It rejoices in the name of
00:19:19 --> 00:19:22 2025 MN45, a
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25 classic asteroid name. Um, and
00:19:25 --> 00:19:27 it's in the main asteroid belt. That's
00:19:28 --> 00:19:31 a good place for it to be between uh, Jupiter
00:19:31 --> 00:19:33 and Mars, where most of the asteroids are.
00:19:33 --> 00:19:36 Uh, but um, its rotation
00:19:36 --> 00:19:39 is what highlights um,
00:19:39 --> 00:19:42 the unusual nature of it. Because as you and
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 I have spoken about before, many asteroids
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 are uh, basically what we call rubble piles.
00:19:46 --> 00:19:49 They're just piles of debris which stick
00:19:49 --> 00:19:52 together loosely under their own,
00:19:52 --> 00:19:55 uh, gravity. Um, little
00:19:55 --> 00:19:57 uh, Dimorphos and Didymos, the
00:19:57 --> 00:20:00 two, uh, objects that NASA did the
00:20:00 --> 00:20:02 DART test on a few years ago, they are
00:20:02 --> 00:20:04 probably rubber piles. They've got the
00:20:04 --> 00:20:06 characteristic rubber pile shape, which is
00:20:06 --> 00:20:09 like two cones, um, uh, back to
00:20:09 --> 00:20:11 back. Uh, if it was a rubber
00:20:11 --> 00:20:13 pile, it would have flown apart
00:20:14 --> 00:20:17 gazillions of years ago, uh, with
00:20:17 --> 00:20:19 that short period of rotation, 1 minute
00:20:20 --> 00:20:23 53 seconds. So, um, uh, and when
00:20:23 --> 00:20:25 you look at the size of it and
00:20:25 --> 00:20:28 uh, interpret what the rotation means, it
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 tells you it's probably made of absolutely
00:20:30 --> 00:20:32 solid rock. This is something that is
00:20:33 --> 00:20:35 um, going to be hard to pull apart, to
00:20:35 --> 00:20:38 rotate. For it to be that big rotate at that
00:20:38 --> 00:20:41 speed, it's got to be solid rock, um,
00:20:41 --> 00:20:43 um, making it uh, you know, in some ways even
00:20:43 --> 00:20:45 more interesting because we think the rubber
00:20:45 --> 00:20:47 piles are perhaps the more common uh,
00:20:47 --> 00:20:48 asteroids that we see.
00:20:49 --> 00:20:51 Andrew Dunkley: Do we, do we have any idea what would make it
00:20:51 --> 00:20:53 different, why it would be different? Is it a
00:20:53 --> 00:20:56 piece of a destroyed planet Theia?
00:20:57 --> 00:20:59 Professor Fred Watson: Well, yeah, could be, uh, might be part of
00:20:59 --> 00:21:02 Theia, the one that created the moon, uh,
00:21:03 --> 00:21:05 after, after it collided with the ah, Earth.
00:21:05 --> 00:21:08 It's more likely you're right. It's
00:21:08 --> 00:21:11 probably, um, you know, maybe part of the
00:21:11 --> 00:21:14 outer mantle of what would have been
00:21:14 --> 00:21:17 a protoplanet. In the early solar
00:21:17 --> 00:21:19 system, these things were the building blocks
00:21:19 --> 00:21:21 of planets. They collided and sometimes they
00:21:21 --> 00:21:23 blasted each other apart, sometimes
00:21:24 --> 00:21:26 they stuck together to form what we see
00:21:26 --> 00:21:29 in the solar system today. Um,
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31 and I, uh, think some of the collisions that
00:21:31 --> 00:21:33 would have happened in the early solar
00:21:33 --> 00:21:36 system, uh, may well have set an
00:21:36 --> 00:21:38 object like this spinning very rapidly. In
00:21:38 --> 00:21:41 fact, it might have initially been
00:21:41 --> 00:21:43 spinning even more rapidly. Than it is now.
00:21:43 --> 00:21:45 Because we're looking at probably several
00:21:45 --> 00:21:47 billion years ago. When whatever
00:21:47 --> 00:21:50 happened to it happened. So, uh, an
00:21:50 --> 00:21:53 object of some interest. And, um, one
00:21:53 --> 00:21:56 that I'm sure will be studied, uh, in
00:21:56 --> 00:21:58 greater detail. We might want to know things
00:21:58 --> 00:22:01 like, um, the infrared signature of its
00:22:01 --> 00:22:03 surface. Which gives you an idea of what the
00:22:03 --> 00:22:05 surface is like, how rough it is, whether
00:22:05 --> 00:22:08 it's a. Whether it's a smooth
00:22:08 --> 00:22:10 surface. What materials are likely to be,
00:22:11 --> 00:22:12 uh, found on its surface. That can all come
00:22:12 --> 00:22:15 from spectroscopy and also the science of
00:22:15 --> 00:22:17 polarimetry, which is what you look at to
00:22:17 --> 00:22:19 know whether something's highly reflective.
00:22:19 --> 00:22:22 Or rather rough and diffuse. So,
00:22:22 --> 00:22:24 yeah, m. I think there's lots to learn about,
00:22:24 --> 00:22:26 uh, 2025 MN45.
00:22:27 --> 00:22:30 Andrew Dunkley: Indeed. So it's in the asteroid
00:22:30 --> 00:22:32 belt between Mars and Jupiter.
00:22:32 --> 00:22:35 Um, people probably imagine
00:22:35 --> 00:22:38 that to be just a wall of roc.
00:22:38 --> 00:22:40 How do we get through it? But it's quite
00:22:40 --> 00:22:41 sparse, isn't it?
00:22:41 --> 00:22:44 Professor Fred Watson: It is, yeah. Yeah. Uh, it's
00:22:44 --> 00:22:46 sparse enough that, um, uh, several
00:22:46 --> 00:22:48 spacecraft have actually gone through it
00:22:48 --> 00:22:51 unscathed. Um, so,
00:22:51 --> 00:22:52 yes, it's.
00:22:52 --> 00:22:53 Andrew Dunkley: Well, I've never heard of a spacecraft
00:22:53 --> 00:22:55 actually running into anything out there.
00:22:56 --> 00:22:58 Not that there have been that many that have
00:22:58 --> 00:22:59 gone through, but.
00:22:59 --> 00:23:01 Professor Fred Watson: That's right. But, you know, as, um.
00:23:02 --> 00:23:05 Uh. Was it Douglas Adams. Space
00:23:05 --> 00:23:05 is big. Yes.
00:23:06 --> 00:23:06 Andrew Dunkley: Yes.
00:23:06 --> 00:23:08 Professor Fred Watson: You might think it's a long way down to the
00:23:08 --> 00:23:10 chemist at the corner of the street. But
00:23:10 --> 00:23:13 that's nothing compared with space. I think
00:23:13 --> 00:23:14 that was what he said.
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18 Andrew Dunkley: Yes, indeed. Uh, so if you would like to
00:23:18 --> 00:23:21 learn more about what the Vera C. Rubin
00:23:21 --> 00:23:23 Observatory has discovered, you can do
00:23:23 --> 00:23:26 that@the universitytoday.com website.
00:23:26 --> 00:23:28 Or you can read the paper in the
00:23:28 --> 00:23:31 Astrophysical Journal Letters. Which was,
00:23:31 --> 00:23:34 uh, only published on January 7th. So they're
00:23:34 --> 00:23:35 getting down to business early this year,
00:23:35 --> 00:23:36 aren't they?
00:23:36 --> 00:23:39 Professor Fred Watson: This is space nuts. Sorry. I was
00:23:39 --> 00:23:41 going to say, um, we always get a really
00:23:42 --> 00:23:44 good, um, crop of news stories at this time
00:23:44 --> 00:23:46 of year. Because it's right at the beginning
00:23:46 --> 00:23:48 of January that the American Astronomical
00:23:48 --> 00:23:51 Society has its annual meeting.
00:23:52 --> 00:23:55 And, um, so there's always some great
00:23:55 --> 00:23:58 stories. So, you know, that's why it was,
00:23:58 --> 00:23:59 uh. You know, it was published last week. I'm
00:23:59 --> 00:24:00 sure that's actually.
00:24:00 --> 00:24:02 Andrew Dunkley: It's actually very clever because as someone
00:24:02 --> 00:24:05 who worked in the media for 40 years. And
00:24:07 --> 00:24:09 had, um, to work a lot of Christmases and New
00:24:09 --> 00:24:12 Years, you quite often find you're
00:24:12 --> 00:24:14 struggling for stories because
00:24:14 --> 00:24:16 everything's shut down. So you're not getting
00:24:16 --> 00:24:19 the information that you normally get. So
00:24:19 --> 00:24:22 to actually be in a position to do stories
00:24:22 --> 00:24:25 like this at this time of year is
00:24:25 --> 00:24:28 um. Yeah, it's well
00:24:28 --> 00:24:30 positioned, as we would say. M. Uh,
00:24:30 --> 00:24:33 you can read all about it, of course. And uh,
00:24:33 --> 00:24:36 we uh, will certainly be keeping a very close
00:24:36 --> 00:24:38 eye on what the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is
00:24:38 --> 00:24:39 going to be doing
00:24:40 --> 00:24:43 um, from now on because it's uh,
00:24:43 --> 00:24:46 it's, it's, it's all up and running and uh,
00:24:46 --> 00:24:49 already doing some remarkable things. This
00:24:49 --> 00:24:51 is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Fred
00:24:51 --> 00:24:51 Watson.
00:24:55 --> 00:24:58 Space Nuts. Now Fred, uh, by the time
00:24:58 --> 00:25:00 people hear us talking about this story,
00:25:00 --> 00:25:03 things will have uh, changed a bit. But
00:25:03 --> 00:25:06 as we speak, uh, we understand that
00:25:06 --> 00:25:08 the Crew Dragon spacecraft
00:25:09 --> 00:25:12 is docking at the International Space Station
00:25:12 --> 00:25:15 to do the first ever crew
00:25:15 --> 00:25:17 evacuation. Now, after 25 years,
00:25:18 --> 00:25:20 I'm surprised this is the first time this has
00:25:20 --> 00:25:22 happened. But uh, there's been a medical
00:25:22 --> 00:25:24 issue. They won't elaborate on who or what,
00:25:25 --> 00:25:27 uh, but it's gotta be serious if somebody's
00:25:27 --> 00:25:29 um, if they're bringing the whole crew back.
00:25:29 --> 00:25:32 It's uh, a crew of four. There's seven on
00:25:32 --> 00:25:33 board at the moment. But they're bringing
00:25:33 --> 00:25:35 four back, correct?
00:25:35 --> 00:25:37 Professor Fred Watson: That's right. So, uh, there is a crew of
00:25:37 --> 00:25:40 three uh, now. So as we speak, um, I
00:25:40 --> 00:25:43 think they've probably undocked the crew
00:25:43 --> 00:25:45 Dragon spacecraft from the International
00:25:45 --> 00:25:46 Space Station. I think that happened an hour
00:25:46 --> 00:25:49 ago. And um, they
00:25:49 --> 00:25:52 will then re. Enter and bring the crew
00:25:52 --> 00:25:55 back in a pretty routine fashion,
00:25:55 --> 00:25:58 uh, landing in a few hours from now. Um, so
00:25:58 --> 00:26:01 you're right, it's Crew 11, uh,
00:26:01 --> 00:26:03 the SpaceX, um,
00:26:04 --> 00:26:06 what's called the SpaceX Crew 11 because
00:26:06 --> 00:26:07 they're the ones that go up and down in the
00:26:07 --> 00:26:10 crew Dragon, uh, rather than the Soyuts,
00:26:10 --> 00:26:12 which is the space vehicle that will bring
00:26:12 --> 00:26:14 the other uh, the remaining three astronauts
00:26:14 --> 00:26:17 down when their time comes to an end. Uh,
00:26:17 --> 00:26:19 you're right. It's a medical evacuation that
00:26:19 --> 00:26:22 Crew, Crew 11 consists of, um, if I
00:26:22 --> 00:26:25 remember rightly, two NASA, uh, uh,
00:26:25 --> 00:26:27 astronauts, one Russian
00:26:27 --> 00:26:30 cosmonaut and uh, a Japanese
00:26:31 --> 00:26:33 uh, astronaut as well. Uh, so they're coming
00:26:33 --> 00:26:36 home, uh, they're coming home something like
00:26:36 --> 00:26:39 a month early. And we are told as
00:26:39 --> 00:26:41 exactly as you've said that this is because
00:26:41 --> 00:26:43 of a medical issue which apparently is not
00:26:43 --> 00:26:46 uh, an emergency. It's not urgent, but it's
00:26:46 --> 00:26:48 thought to be something that is going to be
00:26:48 --> 00:26:51 much better dealt with on Earth. Uh, we don't
00:26:51 --> 00:26:54 know which of the astronauts has the issue.
00:26:54 --> 00:26:57 Um, I saw a picture of them posed just before
00:26:57 --> 00:26:58 they evacuated the spacecraft,
00:26:59 --> 00:27:02 uh, um, last night and they all looked
00:27:02 --> 00:27:05 fairly cheerful, uh, but um, so
00:27:05 --> 00:27:07 you know, uh, you can't really read
00:27:09 --> 00:27:11 from people's faces how they're feeling. Um,
00:27:12 --> 00:27:13 which is just as well because I feel pretty
00:27:13 --> 00:27:16 crook at the moment. So
00:27:16 --> 00:27:19 that's uh, because of my uh, uh, upper
00:27:19 --> 00:27:21 respiratory tract infection. Sorry to keep
00:27:21 --> 00:27:23 harping on about it. Anyway, going back to
00:27:23 --> 00:27:26 the more important story, Andrew. Well it's
00:27:26 --> 00:27:27 a good thing you're not.
00:27:27 --> 00:27:29 Andrew Dunkley: In the International Space Station feeling
00:27:29 --> 00:27:29 like that.
00:27:29 --> 00:27:31 Professor Fred Watson: Well, that's right, I, you'd have the same
00:27:31 --> 00:27:33 thing too. Uh, so, yeah, so,
00:27:33 --> 00:27:36 um, interesting. Uh, but your comment's well
00:27:36 --> 00:27:38 made. You know the fact that it's the first
00:27:38 --> 00:27:40 time in the 25 year history
00:27:41 --> 00:27:44 of the ISS, of the
00:27:44 --> 00:27:46 ISS being permanently occupied,
00:27:47 --> 00:27:49 um, the first time this has happened. And I
00:27:49 --> 00:27:52 think it was Jared Isaacman, the newly
00:27:52 --> 00:27:55 appointed NASA administrator, the boss of
00:27:55 --> 00:27:58 NASA, who made the comment. It might
00:27:58 --> 00:28:01 be somebody else but it is one of the
00:28:01 --> 00:28:04 high ups in NASA made the comment that
00:28:04 --> 00:28:06 when they planned the ISS and they were
00:28:06 --> 00:28:09 working towards it, they expected that there
00:28:09 --> 00:28:10 would be something like this happening every
00:28:10 --> 00:28:13 three years. So they've done pretty well
00:28:13 --> 00:28:16 to get through 2015, five years without um,
00:28:16 --> 00:28:17 needing to bring people home because of a
00:28:17 --> 00:28:19 medical issue. Yeah.
00:28:20 --> 00:28:22 Andrew Dunkley: While you've been talking Fred, I've just
00:28:22 --> 00:28:24 been looking online to see where things are
00:28:24 --> 00:28:27 up to and I've found a um, they did a live
00:28:27 --> 00:28:30 stream of the crew uh, Dragon docking at the
00:28:30 --> 00:28:32 International Space Station through
00:28:32 --> 00:28:35 uh, I think it's NASA's YouTube Music
00:28:35 --> 00:28:38 channel and you can, you can
00:28:38 --> 00:28:40 actually log on and, and watch what happens
00:28:40 --> 00:28:43 and see the whole process. It's quite
00:28:43 --> 00:28:45 incredible what we can do now isn't it with
00:28:45 --> 00:28:48 um, live coverage from space as ah, things
00:28:48 --> 00:28:51 unfold. It's uh, a far cry
00:28:51 --> 00:28:54 from those times back in the 60s and 70s when
00:28:54 --> 00:28:55 we were looking at those really fuzzy black
00:28:55 --> 00:28:57 and white pictures off the moon.
00:28:59 --> 00:29:00 Professor Fred Watson: Which was miraculous in its day.
00:29:00 --> 00:29:02 Andrew Dunkley: Oh it was in itself, yes. Yes.
00:29:03 --> 00:29:03 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
00:29:04 --> 00:29:07 Andrew Dunkley: Actually I am watching Crew Dragon detach as
00:29:07 --> 00:29:07 we speak.
00:29:07 --> 00:29:08 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, that's right.
00:29:08 --> 00:29:10 Andrew Dunkley: So that happened probably 30 minutes ago,
00:29:10 --> 00:29:13 give or take our time. Yeah,
00:29:13 --> 00:29:16 um, it's, it's like a slow motion ballet
00:29:16 --> 00:29:18 isn't it? When they uh, things in
00:29:18 --> 00:29:19 spacecraft.
00:29:19 --> 00:29:22 Professor Fred Watson: Ah, yeah, well you don't want to bang into
00:29:22 --> 00:29:22 anything.
00:29:23 --> 00:29:25 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Anyway, I hope all is well with
00:29:25 --> 00:29:27 the uh, individual involved. I'm uh,
00:29:28 --> 00:29:30 I'm not sure we'll ever find out what exactly
00:29:31 --> 00:29:33 the issue is. That's, that's subject to
00:29:33 --> 00:29:35 privacy from what I understand. But the fact
00:29:35 --> 00:29:38 that they've been able to go
00:29:38 --> 00:29:40 up there, get them, bring them back and deal
00:29:40 --> 00:29:43 with the problem is extraordinary
00:29:43 --> 00:29:46 because go back to the 70s when
00:29:46 --> 00:29:49 Skylab was in orbit. If someone got sick
00:29:49 --> 00:29:52 or injured in that situation,
00:29:52 --> 00:29:55 I don't know if we would have been able to do
00:29:55 --> 00:29:56 much in a hurry.
00:29:58 --> 00:30:00 Professor Fred Watson: Um, yeah, maybe not. I mean, there would have
00:30:00 --> 00:30:03 been contingency plans in place.
00:30:04 --> 00:30:07 It's, um. I think
00:30:07 --> 00:30:09 some of the things that might have brought
00:30:09 --> 00:30:11 somebody home from Skylab might be things
00:30:11 --> 00:30:12 that could have been fixed on the
00:30:12 --> 00:30:14 International Space Station because there is
00:30:14 --> 00:30:17 quite a, you know, a fair, Fair amount of
00:30:17 --> 00:30:19 medical expertise up there and some of the
00:30:19 --> 00:30:21 kit. But you don't want people taking
00:30:21 --> 00:30:23 appendices out and things like that in space.
00:30:23 --> 00:30:25 Andrew Dunkley: No, not really. You just have to wipe down
00:30:25 --> 00:30:27 the walls afterwards, and that's not fun.
00:30:28 --> 00:30:31 Although I should, um, counter it by saying
00:30:31 --> 00:30:33 we did recently have a situation where. Where
00:30:34 --> 00:30:36 a crew got stuck on the International Space
00:30:36 --> 00:30:39 Station for very unusual reasons due to,
00:30:39 --> 00:30:41 uh, incompatible spacesuits because of a
00:30:41 --> 00:30:43 failure in the Boeing Starliner.
00:30:44 --> 00:30:47 So, you know, that wasn't a quick
00:30:47 --> 00:30:49 rescue, that one, but it didn't involve
00:30:49 --> 00:30:51 illness or injury, so it wasn't as urgent.
00:30:51 --> 00:30:54 But, uh, sometimes it. It can be a
00:30:54 --> 00:30:57 slow process, but, um. Uh, yeah, but
00:30:57 --> 00:30:59 NASA's been very quick to point out that this
00:30:59 --> 00:31:01 has got nothing to do with an operational
00:31:01 --> 00:31:03 issue. It's, um. It's a personal issue.
00:31:03 --> 00:31:06 Nothing to do with an injury or accident on
00:31:06 --> 00:31:08 board. They want to make that pretty clear.
00:31:09 --> 00:31:11 Um, so, uh, yeah, we wish them well. They're
00:31:11 --> 00:31:13 on their way back as we speak. And by the
00:31:13 --> 00:31:16 time you hear this podcast, they will have
00:31:16 --> 00:31:17 returned, no doubt.
00:31:18 --> 00:31:21 Um, that's it, Fred. Gosh, we got through
00:31:21 --> 00:31:22 that in a mighty hurry, didn't we?
00:31:23 --> 00:31:26 Professor Fred Watson: Um, yes, I think
00:31:26 --> 00:31:29 we. We gave it due, due
00:31:29 --> 00:31:32 recognition. We've been talking for well over
00:31:32 --> 00:31:33 an hour, Andrew.
00:31:35 --> 00:31:35 Andrew Dunkley: Oh, have we?
00:31:37 --> 00:31:40 Doesn't feel like it, but no. Um.
00:31:42 --> 00:31:45 Professor Fred Watson: 38 minutes. I'm sorry. I'm misreading my
00:31:45 --> 00:31:46 clock. You're right.
00:31:46 --> 00:31:46 Andrew Dunkley: That's okay.
00:31:47 --> 00:31:48 Professor Fred Watson: Well, we got through that in a hurry.
00:31:49 --> 00:31:51 Andrew Dunkley: You're probably reading a Mars clock because
00:31:51 --> 00:31:53 we talked about it. It's going a bit
00:31:53 --> 00:31:56 faster. Um, now
00:31:56 --> 00:31:59 if you were to follow, uh, up those stories,
00:31:59 --> 00:32:00 I've told you where to go and look for them.
00:32:00 --> 00:32:03 But you, uh, can also read the show notes on
00:32:03 --> 00:32:06 our website, spacenutspodcast.more space
00:32:06 --> 00:32:09 nuts IO and while you're
00:32:09 --> 00:32:12 there, uh, you might like to, um, check out
00:32:12 --> 00:32:14 all the. All the tabs and,
00:32:15 --> 00:32:17 uh, links on our. On our website, the, uh,
00:32:17 --> 00:32:19 Astronomy Daily feed. You can subscribe for
00:32:19 --> 00:32:21 your daily dose of astronomy and space
00:32:21 --> 00:32:24 Science news. Uh, don't forget reviews.
00:32:24 --> 00:32:26 We really do appreciate your reviews. The
00:32:26 --> 00:32:29 more reviews, the more we get noticed. And
00:32:29 --> 00:32:31 the more we get noticed, the more people
00:32:31 --> 00:32:33 listen. And then, you know, we can buy
00:32:33 --> 00:32:35 ourselves an ice cream at the end of the day.
00:32:35 --> 00:32:38 Um, you can also send questions
00:32:38 --> 00:32:41 or comments in through the AMA link and
00:32:41 --> 00:32:43 so on and so forth. And don't forget to visit
00:32:43 --> 00:32:45 the Space Nuts shop. Uh, that's one thing
00:32:45 --> 00:32:48 that Huw, um, did some years ago
00:32:48 --> 00:32:51 and it's been very popular. All the, uh,
00:32:51 --> 00:32:53 Space Nuts memorabilia, if you, if you want
00:32:53 --> 00:32:54 to get hold of it. I've got, I've got my
00:32:54 --> 00:32:56 Space Nuts cup here somewhere.
00:32:56 --> 00:32:58 Professor Fred Watson: Here it is. Look. Look at this.
00:32:59 --> 00:32:59 Andrew Dunkley: There it is.
00:32:59 --> 00:33:01 Professor Fred Watson: I never got, I never got one of those.
00:33:02 --> 00:33:03 Andrew Dunkley: I, I'd buy.
00:33:03 --> 00:33:06 It's
00:33:06 --> 00:33:07 good. That's good.
00:33:07 --> 00:33:08 Professor Fred Watson: I'm too stingy.
00:33:09 --> 00:33:12 Andrew Dunkley: Got shirts. We've got hoodies, we've got, uh,
00:33:12 --> 00:33:15 all sorts of bits and bobs at the Space Nuts
00:33:15 --> 00:33:17 Shop, uh, at our website. Thank, uh,
00:33:18 --> 00:33:19 you, Fred. We'll leave it there. We'll catch
00:33:19 --> 00:33:20 you on the next episode.
00:33:21 --> 00:33:22 Professor Fred Watson: Look forward to it, Andrew. See you soon.
00:33:23 --> 00:33:25 Andrew Dunkley: Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at large.
00:33:25 --> 00:33:28 And thanks to Huw in the studio, who couldn't
00:33:28 --> 00:33:30 be with us today, had to be evacuated
00:33:30 --> 00:33:33 after attempting, uh, a Michael Jackson
00:33:33 --> 00:33:35 moonwalk. Not good at his age.
00:33:35 --> 00:33:35 Professor Fred Watson: No.
00:33:35 --> 00:33:37 Andrew Dunkley: And from me, Andrew Dunkley, thanks for your
00:33:37 --> 00:33:39 company. We'll catch you on the next episode
00:33:39 --> 00:33:41 of Space Nuts.
00:33:41 --> 00:33:41 Professor Fred Watson: Bye.
00:33:41 --> 00:33:44 Voice Over Guy: Bye. You've been listening to the
00:33:44 --> 00:33:45 Space Nuts podcast,
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