Historic Moon Landing Attempt, AI Innovations, and the Secrets of Water Ice

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Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for the latest

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news and discoveries from the cosmos. I'm Anna

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and I'm thrilled to have you join me today as we explore some

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fascinating developments in space exploration and

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astronomy. Coming up on today's episode, we'll be

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tracking a historic moon landing attempt as Japanese company

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Ispace prepares its Resilience lander for touchdown

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on the lunar surface. Then we'll look at

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Russia's plans to integrate their homegrown AI system into

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the International Space Station. We've also got an

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incredible discovery from the James Webb Space Telescope.

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And finally, we'll get an update on SpaceX's upcoming AXE

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4 mission.

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So much to cover today, so let's get started with our cosmic

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journey. Tomorrow could mark a

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significant milestone in the history of private space

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exploration as Japanese company Ispace

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attempts to land their resilient spacecraft on the moon.

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This mission, scheduled for Thursday, June 5th at

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AH 3:24pm Eastern Time, represents

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a second chance for Ispace following their first attempt

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that unfortunately ended in failure last April.

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The Resilience lander, also known as Hakuto R Mission

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2, has been on quite a journey since its January

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15 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9

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rocket. Unlike some lunar missions that take a

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direct path, Resilience followed what's called a low

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energy transfer route to reach the moon, which

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is more fuel efficient but adds months to the journey.

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After this lengthy voyage, the spacecraft finally

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entered lunar orbit on May 6 and is now

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ready for its landing attempt. The target

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landing site is in Mare Frigoris, or the

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Sea of Cold, located in the northern hemisphere of

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the moon's near side. It's worth noting that this

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is the same general region where Ispace

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tried to land during their previous mission in

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2023. However, the company has

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backup plans in place with three alternative landing

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sites should conditions change, each with different

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landing dates and times. For those of you interested in

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watching this historic event live, ISPACE

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will be broadcasting the landing attempt on their YouTube

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channel. The livestream begins at

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2:10pm Eastern time, about an hour

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before the scheduled touchdown. They'll actually be offering

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broadcasts in both English and Japanese, so you can

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choose your preferred language. What

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makes this mission particularly significant is is

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that if successful, Resilience would become

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only the second private spacecraft to accomplish

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a soft landing on the lunar surface. The

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first was achieved by Intuitive Machine's Odysseus

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lander back in February, though that landing was

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somewhat precarious when one of its legs failed to deploy

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properly. The timing of the landing is especially

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challenging because of the 1.3 second

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communication delay between Earth and the Moon.

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This means the spacecraft must handle the m most critical

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landing manoeuvres autonomously, adjusting to the

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lunar terrain in real time, without direct human control.

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Once Resilience successfully touches down on the

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lunar surface, it'll begin a relatively short

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but intense mission. The lander is designed to

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operate for about two weeks, essentially one

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lunar day before the harsh lunar night brings

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operations to an end. But don't let that short time

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frame fool you. There's a lot packed into this mission.

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Perhaps the most exciting payload is the tenacious

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microrover, built by Ispace's European

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subsidiary. If all goes according to plan,

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this small rover will deploy from the lander and begin

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exploring the immediate surroundings. It's equipped with

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a camera and a sample collection shovel that will test

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capabilities for future sample return missions. The

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rover is also carrying something rather unusual for a lunar

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mission, a work of art called Moon House, which is

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a small red house designed by Swedish artist Mikael

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Genberg. And in a nod to pop culture,

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Resilience is also bringing along a commemorative

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plate with an inscription based on the charter of

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the universal century from the popular Japanese

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Gundam series.

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In some rather interesting news today from Russia, the

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country plans to integrate its homegrown artificial intelligence

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model called Gigachot in into the International Space

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Station's IT systems.

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Roscosmos chief Dmitri Bakanov announced

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that the next mission to the ISS this northern

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autumn will deliver everything needed for the AI

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to function in space. This isn't just about having

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a space based chatbot, though. The Gigachat

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model will have practical applications, specifically

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helping cosmonauts process satellite imagery.

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According to Bakanov, it'll increase the

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maximum resolution from 1 metre per pixel to

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to half a metre per pixel, which he described as

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direct assistance for the cosmonauts.

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Gigachat was developed by Spurbank,

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Russia's largest bank, and represents one of the

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country's flagship large language models. It's

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part of Russia's broader efforts to catch up with the United States

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and China in what many are calling the global

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AI race. The timing is interesting too, as

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Russia has confirmed it will continue participating in the ISS

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until 2028. Even as they develop their own

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new space station. They're planning to launch the first two

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modules of that independent station in 2027.

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The next Russian spacecraft mission to the ISS is

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scheduled for November 27, which is likely when

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this AI technology will make its way to orbit.

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Now, to what might be one of the most exciting

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astronomical discoveries of the year.

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Scientists have detected crystalline water ice around a

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young sun like star for the very first time.

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This groundbreaking observation, made possible by the

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James Webb Space Telescope, gives us direct

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evidence of something astronomers have long theorised, but

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never directly observed before. The, star in question

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is called

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HD181327,

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and it's located about 155 light years away

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from us. What makes this discovery so

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fascinating is that this star is essentially a

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baby version of our own sun, just 23

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million years old compared to our sun's mature

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4.6 billion years. And unlike our

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solar system,

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HD181,327

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is still surrounded by what's called a protoplanetary debris

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disc, basically a ring of dust and ice that

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hasn't yet formed into planets. Using

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Webb's Near Infrared Spectrograph, researchers

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from Johns Hopkins University were able to identify

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crystalline water ice in this debris disc.

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This is the same type of water ice found in Saturn's

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rings and in icy bodies within our own Kuiper

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Belt. According to the study's lead author, Chen

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Zi, this water ice plays a vital role in

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planetary formation and could eventually be delivered

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to terrestrial planets that might form in this system over the

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next couple hundred million years. What's particularly

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interesting is the distribution of this ice. The

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JWST data shows that over 20%

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of the debris ring's mass consists of water ice

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mixed with dust particles, what astronomers

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colourfully call dirty snowballs.

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This composition is remarkably similar to our own

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Kuiper Belt, and there's a clear pattern.

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The closer you get to the star, the less ice you find.

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At the disk's halfway point, ice makes up

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only about 8% of the material, and near the

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centre there's virtually none. This

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pattern likely exists because ultraviolet radiation

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from the star vaporises ice in the inner

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regions. It's essentially giving us a

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snapshot of how water might have been distributed in our own

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solar system during its formative years,

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potentially helping explain how Earth and other rocky

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planets eventually obtain their water.

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Looking at the distribution of this water ice in more detail,

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we're seeing a fascinating pattern that tells us a lot about

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how planetary systems develop.

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The JWST data shows this ice

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isn't evenly spread throughout the disc. It's

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heavily concentrated in the outer regions, similar

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to how our own Kuiper Belt contains most of the icy

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bodies in our solar system. What's really

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interesting about this finding is how it supports our understanding

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of planetary formation in the outer regions, where

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it's cold enough for ice to remain stable, we see these

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dirty snowballs forming mixtures of dust and

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ice that can eventually clump together into larger

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bodies. This process is likely how the

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ice giants like Uranus and Neptune formed in our own

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system. But the pattern also helps

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explain one of the biggest questions in planetary

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how did Earth get its water? Since Earth

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formed in a region that was probably too hot for water ice

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to exist initially, scientists have long theorised

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that water was delivered here later by comets and

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asteroids from the outer solar system. This

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observation of HD

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181327

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gives us a sort of snapshot of what that early

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delivery system might have looked like, with icy

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bodies from the outer regions potentially migrating inward

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and bringing water to the forming terrestrial planets.

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Finally today, a small update. The launch of the

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AXE 4 mission to the International Space Station has been

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pushed back again. Axiom Space announced just

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yesterday that they're now targeting next Tuesday, June 10th

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at 8:22am Eastern Time for liftoff.

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This is actually the second delay for this mission in recent

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weeks, as it was originally scheduled for May

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29th before being moved to June 8th

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and now it's been pushed back another two days.

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This private astronaut mission will fly aboard a brand new

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SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule launching on a

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Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

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And I've got to say, the crew lineup for this mission

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is particularly noteworthy. The four person

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team is led by Commander Peggy Whitson, who's honestly a

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space legend at this point. She's a former NASA

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astronaut who holds the American record for most time spent in

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space. Now she serves as Axiom's Director of

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Human Spaceflight and this will add even more

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spaceflight experience to her impressive resume.

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What makes this mission truly historic though, is

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the rest of the crew. The pilot is

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Subhanshu Shukla of India and the mission

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specialists are Slavosz Usnansky from Poland and

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Tibor Kapu from Hungary. This

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marks the first time that anyone from any of these three

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countries, India, Poland or Hungary

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will live aboard the International Space Station. So

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we're looking at multiple space firsts happening

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simultaneously with this single mission.

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Once they reach the station, the crew won't just be

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sightseeing, they have a packed schedule with

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approximately 60 different science experiments

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planned during their two week stay. After completing

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their mission aboard the ISS, they'll return

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to Earth in the same Dragon capsule splashing down

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in the Pacific Ocean.

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Well, what an exciting collection of space stories we've covered

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today from ispace's second attempt at making

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history with their resilience moon landing to

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Russia's plans to bring AI aboard the iss,

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to that fascinating discovery of water ice around

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a young star that gives us a glimpse into how our own

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solar system may have formed. And finally, the

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upcoming AXE 4 mission that will make history for three

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different countries at once.

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This has been Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna. Thanks

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so much for listening. For all our previous episodes, head over

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to astronomydaily.IO where you can catch up on

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anything you might have missed. And if you enjoy the show,

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please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

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YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Until tomorrow, keep looking up.