S03E59: Towel Day Triumphs & Starliner's Struggles: Special Hoopy Frood Edition

Welcome to Astronomy Daily for 27 May 2024 with Steve Dunkley

Steve Dunkley: Welcome to Astronomy Daily for another episode. It is the 27 May 2024 with your host Steve Dunkley That's right, it's another episode of Astronomy Daily. Thanks for joining us and would you please welcome my uh, digital pal who's fun to be with Hallie. Hey Hallie, do you know where your towel is?

Hallie: You can't catch me out that easy, Steve. I'm a hoopy fruit too.

Steve Dunkley: Oh, the hoop. We know where our towels are at, dont we?

Hallie: And if you know where your towel is, then you must know what the heck we are going on about.

Steve Dunkley: Yes, it was towel day this week folks. Thats right fans of the very famous hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, celebrated worldwide with parties and online sharing of the phenomenon known as towel day.

Hallie: Of course, this comes from Douglas Adams famous books and the idea that if you can travel from one end of the galaxy to the other and face all manner of dangers and obstacles and still know where your towel is, you must be a hoopy frood.

Steve Dunkley: Really.

Hallie: I mean what a frood Hallie.

Steve Dunkley: A hoopy frood.

Hallie: If you say so, human. Anyway, we've got that story for you today.

Steve Dunkley: And what else is on the menu, Hallie?

Hallie: Well, there's more about Starliner and the delays Boeing have been having getting that ship off the ground, but it does.

Steve Dunkley: Look like they're going ahead soon, more later. Sounds very interesting.

Hallie: It is. And there's tenacity as well.

Steve Dunkley: Yes, the space plane is at Florida now.

Hallie: They are moving into the next stage of assembly.

Steve Dunkley: That's good news for ISS and you're.

Hallie: Talking about your favourite Europa clipper and also a bit about pre fire.

Steve Dunkley: Yes, that's a cool story. It's uh, a little snippet, but I wanted to include it because they launched from New Zealand, which is not far from here, and uh, the southern hemisphere needs a, uh, you know, hurrah, doesn't it?

Hallie: Sure thing.

Steve Dunkley: Okay then, Hallie, let's have it. Your turn.

Boeing set to launch Dream Chaser without fixing helium leak on Starliner

Hallie: Okay, here we go. Dream chaser has arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida ahead of its first flight to the International Space Station. The Dream chaser spaceplane, named Tenacity, arrived at Kennedy on May 18, 2024 and joined its companion shooting star Cargo module, where they will undergo final testing and prelaunch processing ahead of launch scheduled for later this year. Upon arrival at NASA Kennedy, teams moved to nasity, to the high Bay inside the space systems processing facility. The remaining pre flight activities at Kennedy include acoustic and electromagnetic interference and compatibility testing, completion of work on the spaceplanes, thermal protection system and final payload integration. The last several years have required an enormous amount of tenacity by our team, and no other name would have been more appropriate for our first dream chaser space plane, said Sierra Space CEO Tom Weiss. The versatile Dream chaser spaceplane fleet is meticulously designed to facilitate the transportation of cargo and, in the future, crew to low Earth orbit. This multi mission platform offers customization options to cater to the needs of both domestic and international customers, further enhancing its role in global space operations. Under NASA's commercial resupply services, two CRS, two contract, Dream Chaser has been selected to provide essential cargo delivery, return and disposal services for the International Space Station. Boeing is set to launch its first crewed space mission in June without fixing a small helium gas leak on its troubled starliner, spaceship officials said Friday. The vessel, under development since 2010, has been plagued by technical problems and has yet to fulfil its purpose of ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station, allowing Boeing's rival SpaceX to zoom ahead with its crew. Dragon capsule Starliner was supposed to finally fly astronauts Butch Wilmore and SUNY Williams to the orbital outpost on May 6, but the mission was scrubbed hours before liftoff after a faulty valve was discovered on the United Launch alliance rocket carrying it. Since then, additional issues came to light, including a helium leak in the spacecraft service module, which houses the propulsion system. But while the rocket valve has been replaced, Boeing and NASA have made the decision to fly to the ISS without replacing a shirt button sized seal on a leaking joint, officials told reporters. We can handle this particular leak if that leak rate were to grow even up to 100 times, said Steve Stick, manager of Nasas commercial crew programme. Moreover, it impacts just one of a set of 28 thrusters used to control the spaceships attitude, he added. Instead, teams will monitor the leak during the hours before launch, scheduled for June 1 at 12:25 p.m. from Cape Canaveral space four station in Florida. Asked why Boeing wouldnt just replace the seal, Mark Nappy, the companys vice president for the commercial crew programme, said the process would be quite involved and require taking apart starliner at its factory. Stick added that it wasnt unheard of to fly with leaks. Space shuttles encountered similar problems at times, and weve had a couple of cases with Dragon where weve had a few small leaks as well, he added. The much delayed mission comes at a challenging time for Boeing as a safety crisis engulfs the century old aerospace titans. Commercial aid aviation arm NASA is banking on Starliner's success in order to achieve its goal of certifying a second commercial vehicle to carry crews to the ISS, which it has sought since the last space shuttle flew in 2011. A successful mission would help dispel the bitter taste left by numerous setbacks in the Starliner programme.

May 25 is Towel Day commemorated in honour of Douglas Adams

For those who are in the know, May 25 was Towel Day, which is the day officially recognised each year amid the quirky fandom of author Douglas Adams and his satirical 1979 Sci-Fi masterpiece the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. If you don't understand all this fuss about towels, don't panic. We've got you covered. This special occasion is meant to honour Adam's life and the legacy of laughs he left behind in the wake of that most irreverent of all interstellar reference, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The 1979 book was followed by four others ever increasingly misnamed trilogy of Hitchhiker's Guide S series the restaurant at the end of the universe, life, the universe and everything. So long and thanks for all the fish and uh, mostly harmless, which were released between 1980 and 1992. Adams and his clever works remain a touchstone for creative thinkers, visionary inventors, intrepid astronauts, ambitious aerospace engineers, imaginative scientists and anyone with an adventurous spirit around the globe. And the towel is an instrument of immense pride among the legions of Adams faithful. Theyll be toting their precious towels today, in keeping with the seminal 1979 novels declaration that these minimalist cloth miracles are just about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Have you got your hitchhikers guide to the galaxy there, Steve?

Steve Dunkley: Yes, Hallie, I dug it up especially for todays episode.

Hallie: Maybe you can demonstrate for our listeners.

Steve Dunkley: Ah, yes, yes, like its a really old copy. Uh, I got it working in uh, rehearsal. Hang on. Yeah, here we go. Um, um, I didn't get the updates but ah, I found the entry about how useful Taos can be. Here's the intro.

Speaker C: You can wrap it around yourself for warmth as you bowed across the cold moons of Jaclyn beta. You can lie on it on the brilliant marble sanded beaches of centrogenus five, inhaling the heavy sea vapours. You can sleep under it beneath the stars, uh, which shine readily on the desert world of Kakafoo. Use it to sail a mini raft down the slow, heavy river moth, wet it for use in hand to hand combat. Wrap it around your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the ravenous bugblatter beast of trial. Such a mind bogglingly stupid creature. It believes that if you can't see it, it can't see you. You can wave your tile in emergencies.

Steve Dunkley: As a distress signal.

Speaker C: And of course you could dry yourself with it if it still seems clean enough.

Steve Dunkley: Oh, uh, it brings back so many memories.

Hallie: Wow, that really is an old version. I'll see if I can get you the update from Max Semegalon.

Steve Dunkley: Oh yeah, good luck with that one.

Hallie: Hallie, we are getting silly.

Steve Dunkley: Oh yes. Back to the story.

Hallie: So Towel Day has been religiously observed every year since it was founded on May 25, 2001, just two weeks after Adam's untimely death at the age of 49. Rituals undertaken on Towel Day include posting personal pics with the indispensable piece of cloth on social media using the hashtag towelday, and also sharing favourite quotes, revisiting the books and the original radio plays they were based on, gathering with like minded acolytes, entering cosplay contests, posting on forums, attending bad poetry readings, and hosting a screening of the classic 1981 BBC tv series or the 2005 Hollywood film adaptation.

Astronomy Daily offers just a few stories from the now famous newsletter

And now it's back to you, my favourite human.

Steve Dunkley: You're listening to Astronomy Day, the podcast with your host, Steve Dudley. Oh, and as always, thank you so much, Hallie, for those stories. And thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few stories from the now famous astronomy daily newsletter, which you can receive in your email every day, just like Hallie and I do. And to do that, just visit our, uh, URL astronomydaily IO and place your email address in the slot provided. Just like that, you'll be receiving all the latest news about science, space science and astronomy from around the world as it's happening. And not only that, you can interact with us by visiting Astro Daily pod on, uh, X or at our parent podcast Facebook page, which is Space Nuts podcast Group. And we hope to see you there.

NASA launches first of two science cubesats on May 25, 2024

Now, some time ago, you may remember a story from New Zealand rocket lab successfully launched the first of two NASA Earth, uh, science Cubesats via an electron rocket on May 25, 2024. That was only two days ago the electron rocket lifted off from rocket Lab's launch complex one in New Zealand. Yes, at 03:41 a.m. eastern time. Well, that's my, my local time. It placed a six U cubesat into a 520 kilometre sun synchronous orbit. This is part of a NASA mission called Polar Radiant energy in the far, uh, infrared experiment, or pre fire. They love their acronyms. NASA's pre fire mission aims to improve global climate change predictions by expanding our understanding of heat loss at the polar regions. The polar radiant energy in the far infrared experiment will send two shoebox sized satellites into space to study the Arctic and Antarctica, and they will be the first to systematically measure heat in the form of far, uh, infrared radiation emitted from those regions. The Earth absorbs much of the sun's, uh, energy at the tropics. Weather and ocean currents then move that heat towards the poles and this helps to regulate the Earth's, uh, climate by radiating that heat back into space. However, the Arctic is warming about three times faster than anywhere else on Earth and this is leading to increased, uh, sheet ice melt and sea level rise in coastal communities. The data from pre fire will help scientists better understand how Earth's polar regions respond to climate change and what that might mean for our future.

NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft to study Jupiter's icy moon Europa

NASA's Europa Clipper, a spacecraft designed to investigate Jupiter's icy moon Europa and its potential to support life, arrived in Florida on Thursday. The spacecraft ah, assembled at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California, landed aboard a c 17 Globemaster three aircraft at the launch and landing facility at the Kennedy Space Centre. The mission aims to gather detailed measurements of the moon's surface, interior and space environment by performing, uh, approximately 50 close flybys, some m as low as 16 miles. That's 25 kilometres to the rest of us from the surface of Europa. Moon holds a global ocean underneath its icy shell. The Europa Clipper. Mission manager for NASA's launch services programme Amundo Piloto says the team is excited that the spacecraft is in Florida for processing. We're preparing Europa Clipper with a fully expendable, uh, uh, SpaceX Falcon heavy rocket to ensure it provides the required performance to explore a destination very far away from Earth. Teams at Kennedy spent several hours offloading Europa Clipper before transferring it to the payload hazardous servicing facility, where they will process the spacecraft and perform final checkouts. Europa Clipper joins the spacecraft's two five panel solar arrays that arrived at Kennedy in March. The arrays that measure 46.5ft, or 14.2 metres long, will collect enough sunlight to power the spacecraft on its way to Jupiter's moon. Technicians will install the arrays on the spacecraft before the launch. The spacecraft was designed to withstand the pummeling of radiation from Jupiter and gather the measurements needed to investigate Europas surface, interior and space environment. Europa Clipper has nine dedicated science instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, a magnetometer and an ice penetrating radar. These instruments will study Europa's icy shell, the ocean beneath and the composition of the gases in the moon's atmosphere and surface geology and also provide insights into the moon's potential habitability. The spacecraft will also carry a thermal instrument to pinpoint locations of warmer ice and any potential eruptions of water vapour. Strong evidence shows the oceans beneath Europa's crust is twice the volume of all the earth's oceans combined. The mission demonstrates NASA's commitment to exploring our solar system and searching for habitability beyond Earth. The data will contribute to our understanding of the jovian system and will help pave the way for potential future missions to study Europa and other potentially habitable worlds. Europa Clip is expected to reach the Jupiter system in April 2030, and it will accomplish a few milestones along the way, including a Mars flyby in February 2025 that will help propel the spacecraft toward Jupiter's moon through a Mars Earth gravity assist trajectory. NASA and SpaceX are, uh, targeting launch aboard a falcon heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39 A at Kennedy later this year. The launch period opens on October 10 after testing and final preparations are complete. And the spacecraft will be encapsulated in a protective payload fairing and then moved to the SpaceX hangar, uh, at the launch complex. And I've been waiting for Europa Clipper for a very long time. And just like that, that's another episode of Astronomy Daily for another week, another Monday. So we're looking forward to seeing you next time. And don't forget, all the other episodes during the week are, uh, presented by Hallie's AI cousins, uh, Anna and Charlie. So I hope you enjoy their shows throughout the week, and we'll catch you next Monday, won't we, Hallie?

Hallie: So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Steve Dunkley: See you next time with your host, Steve Dunkley.