S04E28| Voyager 2's Silence, Lunar Mining Prospects, and a Birthday Tribute to George Jetson

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Hello, and good day to you. It's another episode of Astronomy Daily.

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I'm Steve Dunkley, your host.
It's the thirty first of July twenty three,

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Whole Dunkley, and here we are
again in the studio and joining me

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is our digital assistant and reporter Hallie. How are you today, Hallie?

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Hi again, my favorite human.
How was your week? Yeah? Fine,

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thanks Halle. I was hoping to
catch some meteors, but I haven't

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managed it yet. They're proving to
be a bit elusive where I am,

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although a neighbor of mine spotted a
few last night. I believe we should

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have some activity until the end of
August. Did you know there are six

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separate showers at the moment? Yes, I did read that on the NASA

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website. I'm just sorry I'm not
seeing them this year. We did have

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a lot of cloud cover and rain
last week, but I'm hoping this week

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might prove a bit different. It's
a good night tonight. Take the camp

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chair outside with some hot chocolate.
You'll love it. Well, that does

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it like a great idea. But
here's a fun fact of the day,

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Hallie. On this day, July
nineteen seventy one, when I was only

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eight years old. A lunar roving
vehicle was used for the first time on

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the Moon. Do you remember that
one, Hallie? Well, no,

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Steve, I was only activated last
year. I'm barely a toddler in human

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terms, but I have viewed the
files extensively. Oh right, than keep

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forgetting well on this day. In
nineteen seventy one, Apollo fifteen astronauts James

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b Irwin and David Scott first used
the four wheel battery operated lunar roving vehicle

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to extensively explore the Moon's surface,
in particular the Hadley Appian site. It

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was quite a machine, kind of
like a cross between a dune buggy and

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a stripped down golf cart. I
remember tearing across the regularly kicking up the

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dust. I'll tell you what.
They must have had a great time in

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that thing. I know all of
us kids wanted one so badly. It

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looks like humans always find a way
to have fun, even at the most

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dangerous moments. Well, that's for
sure, Hollie. So what else have

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we got on the menu today,
Steve? You remember Voyager two? Oh?

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Yes, Voyager two would be way
out there in deep space now,

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Unfortunately NASA has last contact with it. That's why we don't bring coffee into

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the studio kids. So we'll have
a look at that problem. And also

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companies and organizations are seriously looking at
ways to mine on the Moon. We

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knew that was going to be the
next big thing one day at least.

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Well, they say mining will lead
to infrastructure like building materials, rocket fuel,

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oxygen, even water. And in
Scotland, work on a spaceport is

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halted because of archaeological findings on the
building site. Yeah, you kind of

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expect that in a place like Scotland
where the area is rich in ancient artifacts.

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And you have a special story for
science fiction fans, I hear,

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oh science fiction? Yeah maybe,
yeah, sure, but in a fun

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way special nonetheless. But anyway,
on with the show. Over to you,

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Holly. Here are the short takes. Amidst its epic journey into the

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Cosmos. NASA's Voyager two spacecraft has
temporarily lost contact with the Blue Planet.

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An accidental deviation of the antenna's alignment
on July twenty first has caused an unexpected

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silence in the spacecraft's interstellar communications.
Voyager two nestled over twelve point three billion

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miles nineteen point nine billion kilometers away
from Earth, slightly misaligned its antenna by

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two degrees following a routine transmission of
planned commands. This minimal misdirection has led

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to an unexpected halt in the flow
of data between the spacecraft and our home

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planet, as Voyager too can neither
receive commands nor transmit data back to Earth.

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The unanticipated pause in communication was triggered
due to the misalignment, effectively disrupting

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the spacecraft's contact with NASA's Deep Space
Network DSN antenna's stationed on the ground.

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The DSN, a critical part of
Voyager two's communication apparatus, has been rendered

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incapable of receiving the data sent by
the spacecraft. Correspondingly, Voyager two is

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also deprived of receiving instructions from the
dsn's ground controllers. Despite this interruption,

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Voyager two has not deviated from its
intended path and will continue along its planned

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trajectory. The design of the spacecraft
includes a built in mechanism that ensures its

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antenna periodically resets its orientation towards Earth
irrespective of the spacecraft's position in space.

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This mechanism comes into place several times
a year, acting as a critical failsafe

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to maintain the interstellar bond between the
spacecraft and Earth. The next automatic antenna

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reset of Voyager two is scheduled for
October fifteenth. Following this reset, the

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spacecraft's antenna will realign its focus towards
Earth, restoring the communication links. The

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team remains hopeful that this scheduled realignment
will serve as an effective solution to the

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current disruption. The pace is quickening
for using Earth's Moon as a near term

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go to location to land on,
live, and explore. As NASA's Artemis

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program moves forward, so too do
long term plans by small and large firms,

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academia, along with international space agencies. That was an evidence at the

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twenty third meeting of the Space Resources
round Table held at the Colorado School of

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Mines. A record attendance of some
two hundred and fifty participants spoke on lunar

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economic models, results of lab tests, and legal and policy issues. A

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number of entrepreneurial groups shared their strategies
to turn the Moon into a hustle and

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bustle world of marketable services. The
key glue that anchors future Moon use is

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labeled Institute Resource Utilization or ISRU.
This involves the extraction of oxygen, water

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and other available materials for cranking out
rocket fuel and to gas up life support

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systems. Then there's pulling out metals
on the Moon to fabricate lunar housing landing

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pads along with other structures and products. There is international pressure to do this,

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which will keep the program pushing forward, say those involved. Many of

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the parties providing this push are in
the private sector, along with NASA working

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with US groups through the Commercial Lunar
Payload Services Program, which is to deliver

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science and technology to the lunar landscape. Shiny quartz, giant granite stones and

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a possible cremation came to light during
a dig at the new Saxoford spaceport readying

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for rocket launches on the United Kingdom's
northernmost island, Shetlands. Saxiford plans to

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host its first spacelift off later this
year, pending readiness of its license and

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the company's planning to send small rockets
to space from UNSD in the far north

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of Scotland. It's definitely very exciting. An official with Saxovord, who asked

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not to be named in an interview
of the dig It will take months at

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the least to learn about the fines
and to figure out how to protect them,

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but spaceport officials said they are committed
to sharing the story in some way

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for visitors, perhaps using an exhibition
or marker. We didn't expect to find

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this Bronze age thing as well,
said Val Turner, an archaeologist who represents

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the county at large through a Scottish
charity, the Shetland Amenity Trust. Archaeologists

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also found evidence of cremations, burnt
bones, and filing cabinet sized granite boulders

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that would have needed several people to
move over a short distance. The boulders

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were particularly puzzling, Turner said,
as the gigantic stones were buried so that

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only the tips were visible. She
cautioned the excavations are at such an early

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stage that nobody knows for sure if
the timing of the cremations and boulders coincided,

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but if so, it is quite
possible that they the stones were put

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there in order to create a visual
boundary of the area. We'll soon get

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sharp revision on cosmic X rays.
A new satellite aims to study huge objects

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in the universe using instruments able to
measure the heat of a single X ray

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photon. The X Ray Imaging and
Spectroscopy Mission CHRISM pronounced at CHRISM will analyze

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X rays using the widest field of
view instrument ever implemented. In this kind

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of imaging probe, the instrument will
be able to impry apart high energy light

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into the equivalent of an X ray
rainbow. According to a NASA statement,

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CHRISM is scheduled to launch from Japan's
Tanegashima Space Center on August twenty fifth August

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twenty sixth, Japan time zone.
Exact time of day has not yet been

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announced. In twenty twenty six,
the European Space Agency ESA will launch its

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next generation XO planet hunting mission,
the Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars,

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named PLATO. This mission will scan
over two hundred and forty five thousand main

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sequence F, G and K tie
yellow, white, yellow, and orange

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stars using the transit method to look
for possible earthlike planets orbiting solar analogs.

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In keeping with the low hanging fruit
approach. These planets are considered strong candidates

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for habitability since they are most likely
to have all the conditions that gave rise

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to life here on Earth. Knowing
how many planets Plato will likely detect and

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how many will conform to earthlike characteristics
is essential to determining how and where it

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should dedicate its observation time. According
to a new study that will be published

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shortly in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, the platomission is likely to find tens

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of thousands of planets depending on several
parameters. They further indicate that it could

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detect a minimum of five hundred Earth
sized planets, about a dozen of which

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will have favorable orbits around G type
stars like ours. They think the platomission

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could very well be the most successful
planet hunter ever. That's all, Steve.

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Back to your daily in the podcast. Now, what's your big surprise

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story, Steve, Well, a
long time ago when you know the Earth

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was young? In fact, well, it was only a year ago if

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you read this story correctly, Hallie, okay, I'm ready for it.

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A year ago and you mean claiming
that the father in the cartoon The Jetsons

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was indeed born on July thirty one, twenty twenty two, in fact,

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and has been circulating for quite a
while, and while the show never reveals

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his birthday, the show first day
in nineteen sixty two and was set a

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hundred years in the future. Jetson
reveals he is forty in the first season,

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meaning that he would have been born
in twenty twenty two. The idea

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that he was born on July thirty
one came from a tweet posted by Brendan

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Kirgan on July twenty eight. The
tweet included a photo of a chart of

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information from a fan site that listed
Jetson's birthdays the thirty first. I don't

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mean to alarm anyone, but someone
is about to give birth to George Jetson,

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Kirgan wrote. Now George Jetson,
who lives with his family in the

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Skypad apartments in Orbit City, was
voiced by Jeff Bergman. The first season

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of The Jetson's d for twenty four
episodes, beginning in nineteen sixty two.

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Folks, that was a year before
I was born, and while later episodes

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were produced in the mid nineteen eighties, that first season remains the most influential.

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The Futurischik Show helped shaped audiences views
on the future, popularizing concepts like

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flying cars, robot servants, video
chat, and space Ready fashion. Hello

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the Kardashians. George is employed at
spacely Resprockets as a digital index operator,

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which involves pressing a button on and
off as many as five times for three

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hours only three days a week.
When he was a child, he had

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to fly through ten miles of asteroid
storms to go to a high school where

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he was the star pitcher in its
spaseball team. He's married to Jane,

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his wife. He has daughter Judy
and a son Elroy. The family pet

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is Astro the dog, and they're
all managed very carefully by their robot,

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Maide Rosie. So it's no surprise
that nostalgic fans have seized the opportunity to

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wish George a happy birthday, and
on social media, it's no surprise to

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see posts like happy birthday, mister
Jensen. Just a few more decades until

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flying cars. Welcome to the world, George. I hope you enjoyed that.

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I was only watching the new series
of Star Trek the other day where

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they did a crossover episode from their
animated series to the new Strange New World

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series, And oh, the internet's
kind crazy about that. I just was

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thinking to myself, wouldn't it be
funny if they met the Jetsons. That

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would just be outrageous. Oh,
wouldn't that be a blow up? Anyway,

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Thanks for joining us on Astronomy Daily
for another episode. I'm Steve Dunkley,

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your host and Hallie. I'll be
with Tim again on Friday over in

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Bath, England. I love doing
a bit of traveling, and I'll be

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back with Hallie again on Monday with
more Astronomy Daily see then. Than Dunkle