Moon's Slow Farewell, Alien Civilization Odds, and NASA's Cosmic Communication

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Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily,

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your source for the latest news and

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discoveries from across the cosmos.

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I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm Avery. We've got a fabulous show

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lined up today with some truly mind bending

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science. We're talking about how our Moon

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is slowly but surely drifting away from

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Earth, why alien civilizations might be

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much rarer than we thought, and how

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NASA guides spacecraft through the vast

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emptiness of space.

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Anna: Plus, we'll catch you up on this week's busy

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launch schedule. So let's dive right in

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with something that might surprise you.

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Did you know that every single day the

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Moon gets a tiny bit further away from

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us?

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Avery: It's true. The Moon is drifting away from earth

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at about 1.5 inches per year.

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That might not sound like much, but over millions of

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years, it really adds up. And we can

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measure this incredibly precisely, thanks to

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something left behind by the Apollo astronauts.

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Anna: You're talking about those retroreflector

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mirrors, right? The Apollo crews place these

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special mirror arrays on the lunar surface,

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and scientists have been bouncing laser beams off

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them ever since to measure the exact

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distance to the Moon. It's one of the most

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precise measurements in all of astronomy.

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Avery: Exactly. And the reason this is happening is actually

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pretty fascinating. It all comes down to

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tidal forces. The Moon's gravity creates

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those familiar ocean tides on Earth. But

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here's the Earth's rotation is

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faster than the Moon's orbital period.

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This creates a slight bulge in Earth's

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oceans that's actually ahead of the Moon as it

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orbits.

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Anna: So that tidal bulge is essentially

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pulling the Moon forward in its orbit, which

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increases its orbital energy and makes it

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spiral outward. It's like a cosmic

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dance where Earth is gradually pushing its

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partner away. And there's another

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consequence. This process is also making

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Earth's days slightly longer over time.

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Avery: The evidence for this is really cool. Scientists

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have studied fossilized clamshells that show growth

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patterns from 70 million years ago during the age of

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dinosaurs. Those patterns tell us that

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back then, a day was only about

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23.5 hours long. The Moon

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was closer, Earth spun faster, it

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was a different world.

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Anna: And if we go way back to when the Moon

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first formed four and a half billion years ago,

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after that massive collision between Earth and a

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Mars sized object, the Moon would have been

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dramatically closer. We're talking about it

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appearing maybe 10 times larger in the sky.

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The tides would have been enormous and

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days would have been just a few hours long. That

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early Earth Moon system must have been

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absolutely spectacular to witness.

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Can you imagine those massive tides?

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We're talking about ocean tides, potentially

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hundreds of feet high, Surging across the planet

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Every few hours, the moon would have looked

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like this enormous disk Dominating the sky.

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Avery: And here's what's really fascinating about the

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physics. This process Won't continue

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forever. Eventually, Earth and the moon

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Will become tidally Locked to each other, which

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means Earth's rotation Will slow down until

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one day equals one lunar month,

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roughly 47 of our current days. At

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that point, the same side of Earth Will always face the

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moon, Just like the same side of the moon Always faces

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us.

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Anna: Now, that brings up something that really hits

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home for eclipse enthusiasts like us.

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The moon is gradually moving away,

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which means total solar eclipses Are becoming

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rarer and, and will eventually disappear

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altogether. Right now, the moon is

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just the perfect size to block out the sun's disk

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During a total eclipse. But as it moves away and

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appears smaller in our sky, we'll start seeing

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more annular eclipses, where you get that beautiful

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ring of fire effect Instead of totality.

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Avery: The timeline is mind boggling, though. We're talking about

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Hundreds of millions of years before total solar

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eclipses Become impossible. So while future

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generations Will miss out on one of nature's most

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spectacular shows, Human has plenty of time to

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catch these incredible events. In fact, we're living

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During A cosmically special time, the brief

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window when the moon and sun Appear Almost

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exactly the same size in our sky. It's incredible

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to think about how that ancient catastrophe Shaped not just our

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planet, but continues to influence us today.

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Speaking of planetary formation and what makes world

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habitable, um, there's some new research that's pretty sobering

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about our prospects of finding alien civilizations.

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Anna: Oh, this is the study about plate tectonics.

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Right. The researchers are arguing that

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technological civilizations Might need plate

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tectonics and something called the carbon

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silicate cycle to survive long enough to actually

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develop advanced technology.

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Avery: Exactly. The basic idea is that without plate

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tectonics, Constantly recycling carbon through

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volcanic activity and rock weathering, CO2

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levels would just keep rising and rising. Eventually, you'd get

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A runaway greenhouse effect that would make the planet

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uninhabitable, Kind of like what happened to Venus.

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The carbon silicate cycle Is really the planetary

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thermostat that keeps earth habitable. Here's how

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it works. When it gets too hot, More water

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evaporates and creates more rain, which

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increases rock weathering. That weathering

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pulls CO2 out of the atmosphere and

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locks it into carbonate rocks. When

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it gets too cold, Volcanic activity

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releases stored CO2 back into the

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atmosphere While warming things up again. It's

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this incredible self regulating system that's

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kept Earth's temperature relatively stable for

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billions of years.

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Anna: And Venus is the perfect cautionary tale

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here. Venus probably started out much more

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Earth like, but without active plate

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tectonics to recycle carbon, CO2

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just kept building up in the atmosphere. The result,

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surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead, cool,

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crushing atmospheric pressure and sulfuric acid

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clouds. It's a hellscape that shows us

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exactly what happens when a, uh, planet

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loses its carbon silicate cycle.

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Avery: This research has huge implications for seti, the

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search for Extraterrestrial intelligence. It suggests

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we might need to focus more on planets with clear signs of

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active geology, not just planets in the habitable zone.

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We'd want to look for atmospheric signatures that indicate

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active volcanism and weathering cycles. And it's also

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related to what scientists call the Great Filter, the idea that

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there might be some extremely difficult step in the evolution

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from simple chemistry to a galaxy spanning

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civilization.

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Anna: The numbers are pretty staggering. The study estimates

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that it might take anywhere from a thousand to

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a million rocky planets for just one to

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develop into an Earth like world with the kind

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of long term climate stability needed for complex life

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to evolve and, and eventually develop

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technology.

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Avery: And if this research is correct, it pushes the nearest

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potential extraterrestrial intelligence

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way out to maybe 33,000 light years

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away. Even more challenging for alien

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civilizations to exist at the same time as us,

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they'd need to last an average of 280,000

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years or more. That's a long time for any

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technological species to survive.

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Anna: It really makes you appreciate how special Earth might

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be. We've got this perfect balance of plate

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tectonics, the right distance from the sun, a large,

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large stabilizing moon, and probably

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dozens of other factors that had to line up

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just right. Of course, we're still looking.

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And that's where missions like the ones launching this

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week come in.

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Avery: Let's talk launches. It's going to be a busy week.

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SpaceX has four missions on the schedule, including

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three Starlink launches to continue building out their

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satellite Internet constellation. Plus one mission

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called NROL 48 for the national

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Reconnaissance Office. That's the secretive one where we

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probably won't get many details about the payload.

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Anna: The mission I'm most excited about is Blue

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Origin's New Shepard NS35,

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finally launching Thursday after several

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delays. This one's carrying over 40

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different experiments, including 24

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student payloads from NASA's TechRise student

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challenge. Plus they're taking thousands of

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postcards to space, which I think is just

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delightful. The New Shepard mission is

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particularly Interesting from a scientific

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standpoint. Among those 40 plus

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experiments, they're testing everything from

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crystal growth in microgravity to plant

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biology studies. Several experiments are

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investigating how different materials behave in the

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brief microgravity environment, which is

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incredibly valuable for manufacturing research.

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Um, the student payloads are testing things like

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seed germination, fluid dynamics,

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and even how social media algorithms

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might work in space environments.

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Avery: The Starlink launches are pretty impressive from, uh, a

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technical standpoint, too. The Constellation now has

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over 5,000 active satellites in orbit,

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making it by far the largest satellite constellation

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ever deployed. And SpaceX's booster

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reuse program continues to break records. Some

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of these Falcon 9 first stages have flown more than 15

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times each. That's revolutionary when

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you consider that just a few years ago rockets were

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completely expendable. The cost savings are allowing

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them to launch these massive Constellation buildouts that would

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have been economically impossible before.

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Anna: I love that. And there's something wonderfully

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old fashioned about sending postcards to space in

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this digital age. And don't forget about

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Tuesday's Chinese launch and, uh, a Chang Zang

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2C rocket carrying what's described only

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as an unknown payload. The mystery always

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adds a bit of intrigue.

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Speaking of space missions, we've had a query from one of our

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listeners, Josh, asking how on Earth

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do we maintain contact with all of our spacecraft

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in deep space? Good question, Josh.

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Once these spacecraft get beyond Earth orbit,

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they enter a realm where GPS doesn't work and

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navigation becomes incredibly complex. And

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that's where NASA's Deep Space Network comes in.

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It's honestly one of the most impressive technological

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achievements that most people have never heard of.

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Avery: The DSN is basically NASA's lifeline to

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everything we've sent beyond Earth orbit. It's a network that

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is made up of three massive antenna complexes, one

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in California, one in Spain, and one in

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Australia, spaced exactly 120

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degrees apart around the globe. This means that as

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Earth rotates, at least one complex always has

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line of sight contact with any spacecraft in the solar

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system. The navigation challenges are

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absolutely staggering when you really think about them.

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Take Voyager 2, for example. It's currently at

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about 12.8 billion miles from Earth

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in a completely unique position below the plane of the

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solar system. Command sent to Voyager 2 take

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over 18 hours just to reach the spacecraft,

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and then another 18 hours for any response to come

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back. That means if something goes wrong, mission

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controllers have to wait more than a day and a half just to know if their

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fix worked.

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Anna: The precision required for antenna pointing is

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just incredible. These dishes need to be

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aimed so Accurately that they can target a

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spacecraft millions of miles away to within a

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fraction of a degree. It's like trying to hit a coin

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with a laser pointer from across an entire city.

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And they have to constantly adjust for the motion of

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both Earth and the spacecraft, which plus account

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for things like atmospheric refraction and

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even the slight bending of radio waves by the

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Sun's gravity.

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Avery: This incredible precision is what enables those

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amazing gravity assist maneuvers that would be impossible

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Otherwise. When Voyager 2 flew by Jupiter,

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Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, each

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encounter had to be timed within minutes and positioned within

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hundreds of miles to get the trajectory exactly

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right for the next target. One small navigation

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error early in the mission and Voyager 2 would have missed

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Uranus by millions of miles. The fact that we can

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execute these cosmic billiard shots across decades of

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flight time is testament to the incredible engineering

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of the Deep Space Network.

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Anna: The precision is mind boggling. These

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antennas can track spacecraft millions of

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miles away by measuring incredibly tiny

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time delays in radio signals and

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detecting minute Doppler shifts in

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frequency. They're essentially doing

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celestial GPS calculations using

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the time it takes for signals to travel at the speed of

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light to determine exact positions and

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velocities.

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Avery: And, um, the range of missions it supports is incredible.

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We're talking about the Voyager probes, which are now in

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interstellar space over 15 billion miles

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away. Mars rovers like Perseverance and

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Curiosity, all the lunar missions and everything

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in between. Each one requires constant

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communication for telemetry commands and

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navigation updates.

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Anna: The future is getting even more exciting with

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optical communications. NASA's testing

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something called the Deep Space Optical

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Communications Experiment, or

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dsoc, on the Psyche mission.

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Instead of radio waves, they're using laser light to

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send data back to Earth. It's like upgrading

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from dial up to fiber optic Internet, but for

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spacecraft. If you'd like to find out more about the

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Deep Space Network, head over to our

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website@astronomydaily.IO and check

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out our latest blog post where we take a deep dive

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into the subject. I hope that answers your question, Josh.

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Avery: Before we wrap up, let's quickly touch on a couple more

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stories. Firefly Aerospace got some good news.

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Their Alpha rocket has been cleared to fly again after

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April's failure. The investigation found that

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extreme heat and something called plume

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induced flow separation caused the problem,

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but they've apparently worked out the fixes.

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Anna: And mark your calendars for September 23rd.

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NASA's launching three space weather

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missions, all at IMAP. The

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Carruthers, Geocarona Observatory

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and SWFOL1.

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These will study how solar activity affects

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our solar system and help us better predict

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space weather that could could impact satellites and

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astronauts.

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Avery: That's particularly timely because the sun's

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activity has been ramping up significantly since

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2008 after decades of relatively

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quiet behavior. This has major

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implications for space weather and the safety of

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astronauts on future long duration missions to the

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Moon and Mars.

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Anna: That's all for today's Astronomy Daily. From our

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slowly departing moon to the search for alien

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civilizations, from busy launch schedules, to

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the incredible engineering that keeps us connected

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to robotic explorers across the solar system,

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there's never a dull moment in space science.

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Avery: Thanks for joining us today. Keep looking up and we'll see

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you tomorrow with more news from the final frontier. I'm, um,

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Avery.

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Anna: And I'm Anna. Until tomorrow, stay

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curious about the cosmos.