Starship V3 Maiden Flight, New Glenn Cleared, Cosmic Web Photographed | Weekend Wrap

WEBVTT

0
00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:02.960
Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.

1
00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:05.720
Your weekend wrap for Saturday, May

2
00:00:05.720 --> 00:00:08.560
23, 2026. I'm

3
00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:09.120
Anna.

4
00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:11.720
Avery: And I'm, um, Avery. If you've been following

5
00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:14.560
the news from Boca Chica, Texas, you already

6
00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:17.440
know it's been quite a week for spaceflight.

7
00:00:17.680 --> 00:00:19.840
Anna: Quite a week is an understatement.

8
00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:23.080
Starship version 3 finally left the pad

9
00:00:23.080 --> 00:00:25.720
last night. And while it wasn't a clean

10
00:00:25.720 --> 00:00:28.480
sheet, it was absolutely a milestone.

11
00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:31.240
We'll have the full story and all the drama

12
00:00:31.240 --> 00:00:32.200
coming up shortly.

13
00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:34.800
Avery: And in our second fresh story, we're heading

14
00:00:34.800 --> 00:00:37.720
to a rival launch pad. Blue Origin has

15
00:00:37.720 --> 00:00:39.920
just cleared the way for New Glenn to fly

16
00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:42.560
again. After its spring mishap, the heavy

17
00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:45.079
lift rocket race is firmly back on.

18
00:00:45.480 --> 00:00:47.840
Anna: Then we'll take a look back at the best of

19
00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:50.520
the week. The universe's hidden highways

20
00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:53.360
finally photographed. Possible fingerprints

21
00:00:53.360 --> 00:00:56.310
of dark matter in gravitational waves, uh, a

22
00:00:56.310 --> 00:00:59.150
revolutionary new space telescope nearly

23
00:00:59.150 --> 00:01:02.070
ready to fly, and a chip that could teach

24
00:01:02.070 --> 00:01:04.110
spacecraft to think for themselves.

25
00:01:04.830 --> 00:01:07.150
Avery: It's, uh, a full slate. Let's get into it.

26
00:01:07.630 --> 00:01:10.310
Anna: So last night was the night. After a

27
00:01:10.310 --> 00:01:12.990
scrubbed attempt, on Thursday, SpaceX

28
00:01:13.230 --> 00:01:15.990
finally got Starship version 3 off the

29
00:01:15.990 --> 00:01:17.790
ground for the very first time.

30
00:01:18.190 --> 00:01:20.310
Avery: Flight 12 lifted off at

31
00:01:20.310 --> 00:01:23.030
6:30pm Eastern from Pad

32
00:01:23.030 --> 00:01:25.580
2, a brand new launch pad at

33
00:01:25.580 --> 00:01:27.940
Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

34
00:01:28.500 --> 00:01:31.380
That's actually two first in one made

35
00:01:31.380 --> 00:01:34.020
in flight of the V3 vehicle and

36
00:01:34.260 --> 00:01:35.940
debut of the new pad.

37
00:01:36.740 --> 00:01:39.420
Anna: And let's give credit where it's due. Elon

38
00:01:39.420 --> 00:01:42.260
Musk himself called it epic. And for good

39
00:01:42.260 --> 00:01:45.220
reason. The V3 Starship is a significant

40
00:01:45.460 --> 00:01:48.420
redesign from previous versions. Both the

41
00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:51.260
super heavy booster and the ship are powered

42
00:01:51.260 --> 00:01:53.980
by the next evolution of SpaceX's Raptor

43
00:01:53.980 --> 00:01:56.620
engine. They've simplified the aft sections,

44
00:01:56.860 --> 00:01:59.580
increased propellant capacity, and built in

45
00:01:59.580 --> 00:02:02.060
new hardware for future orbital refueling.

46
00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:05.340
Avery: But, and it's a fairly significant but

47
00:02:05.740 --> 00:02:08.380
not everything went to plan. The booster

48
00:02:08.380 --> 00:02:10.859
performed well on ascent and nailed stage

49
00:02:10.859 --> 00:02:13.820
separation. But the boostback burn went non

50
00:02:13.820 --> 00:02:16.580
nominal, several engines dropped out, the

51
00:02:16.580 --> 00:02:18.940
booster started to spin out of control, and

52
00:02:18.940 --> 00:02:21.540
ultimately it came down hard rather than

53
00:02:21.540 --> 00:02:23.540
completing its planned water landing in the

54
00:02:23.540 --> 00:02:23.900
Gulf.

55
00:02:24.540 --> 00:02:27.380
Anna: Meanwhile, up in the ship, one of the vacuum

56
00:02:27.380 --> 00:02:29.980
Raptor engines shut down unexpectedly.

57
00:02:30.140 --> 00:02:32.820
But the ship compensated using its sea level

58
00:02:32.820 --> 00:02:35.060
Raptors and continued on its intended

59
00:02:35.060 --> 00:02:37.860
trajectory, eventually splashing down as

60
00:02:37.860 --> 00:02:39.420
planned in the Indian Ocean.

61
00:02:40.060 --> 00:02:42.300
Avery: So the scorecard ship success

62
00:02:42.860 --> 00:02:45.860
booster lost. But this was always billed

63
00:02:45.860 --> 00:02:48.460
as a test flight, not a demonstration. And

64
00:02:48.460 --> 00:02:50.180
given it was the maiden flight of a

65
00:02:50.180 --> 00:02:52.900
significantly redesigned vehicle, getting the

66
00:02:52.900 --> 00:02:55.300
ship home safely and gathering a mountain of

67
00:02:55.300 --> 00:02:58.040
data on the booster anomaly is a genuinely

68
00:02:58.040 --> 00:02:59.000
Useful outcome.

69
00:02:59.320 --> 00:03:01.760
Anna: The stakes couldn't be higher for SpaceX

70
00:03:01.760 --> 00:03:04.640
right now. NASA has picked Starship as the

71
00:03:04.640 --> 00:03:07.440
lunar lander for the Artemis 4 crewed moon

72
00:03:07.440 --> 00:03:10.200
mission in 2028. That means

73
00:03:10.200 --> 00:03:12.880
SpaceX needs V3 to demonstrate

74
00:03:12.880 --> 00:03:15.600
full orbital capability in orbit,

75
00:03:15.600 --> 00:03:18.400
refueling, docking, and eventually a

76
00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:21.000
crewed lunar surface landing. None of which

77
00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:21.880
have happened yet.

78
00:03:22.460 --> 00:03:24.620
Avery: And there's a financial dimension too.

79
00:03:24.860 --> 00:03:27.780
SpaceX recently filed for an IPO and the

80
00:03:27.780 --> 00:03:29.700
investment community is watching very

81
00:03:29.700 --> 00:03:32.540
closely. A partial success like this

82
00:03:32.860 --> 00:03:35.260
historic milestone, some anomalies,

83
00:03:35.580 --> 00:03:38.100
is probably the best honest summary of where

84
00:03:38.100 --> 00:03:39.180
the program stands.

85
00:03:39.580 --> 00:03:42.460
Anna: Flight 13 is already penciled in for June,

86
00:03:42.700 --> 00:03:45.460
which tells you how quickly SpaceX wants to

87
00:03:45.460 --> 00:03:47.620
turn this around. Last night was the

88
00:03:47.620 --> 00:03:50.140
beginning of V3's story, not the end.

89
00:03:50.810 --> 00:03:52.850
Avery: One more thing worth noting. There was a

90
00:03:52.850 --> 00:03:55.210
fascinating site announcement just before

91
00:03:55.210 --> 00:03:57.890
launch. Cryptocurrency billionaire

92
00:03:57.890 --> 00:04:00.890
chun Wong, the Fram 2 mission commander who

93
00:04:00.890 --> 00:04:03.050
circled the poles in Dragon earlier this

94
00:04:03.050 --> 00:04:05.850
year, announced he'll lead the first starship

95
00:04:05.850 --> 00:04:08.570
flyby of Mars. A crewed Mars

96
00:04:08.570 --> 00:04:10.130
flyby, not a landing.

97
00:04:10.130 --> 00:04:12.890
Anna: But still, the ambition levels in this

98
00:04:12.890 --> 00:04:15.170
industry right now are genuinely something

99
00:04:15.170 --> 00:04:17.930
else. We'll be tracking all of it as Flight

100
00:04:17.930 --> 00:04:20.690
12's data gets analyzed and preparations for

101
00:04:20.690 --> 00:04:22.010
Flight 13 begin.

102
00:04:22.700 --> 00:04:24.900
Avery: And speaking of heavy lift rockets, Blue

103
00:04:24.900 --> 00:04:27.500
Origin had some significant news of its own

104
00:04:27.500 --> 00:04:29.660
yesterday. The company has officially

105
00:04:29.660 --> 00:04:31.740
completed its investigation into the new

106
00:04:31.740 --> 00:04:34.380
Glenn NG3 mission failure from April

107
00:04:34.620 --> 00:04:36.860
and the FAA has signed off on the report.

108
00:04:37.580 --> 00:04:40.380
Anna: So New Glenn is cleared to fly again. Let's

109
00:04:40.380 --> 00:04:43.020
quickly recap what happened back on April 19,

110
00:04:43.170 --> 00:04:46.100
M NG3 lifted off from Cape Canaveral carry an

111
00:04:46.100 --> 00:04:49.100
AST Space Mobile's Bluebird 7 satellite.

112
00:04:49.480 --> 00:04:51.680
The good news? The booster nailed its landing

113
00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:53.960
on the drone ship. Actually the first ever

114
00:04:53.960 --> 00:04:56.400
reuse of a new Glenn booster, which was a

115
00:04:56.400 --> 00:04:57.560
genuine milestone.

116
00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:00.720
Avery: The bad news? The second stage ran into some

117
00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:03.480
trouble during its second burn. Blue Origin

118
00:05:03.480 --> 00:05:06.040
traced it to an off normal thermal condition

119
00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:09.040
that prevented one of the BE3U engines from

120
00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:11.920
reaching full thrust. The result was Bluebird

121
00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:14.400
7 ending up in an orbit too low for its

122
00:05:14.400 --> 00:05:16.800
onboard propulsion to recover from. The

123
00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:19.440
satellite was deorbited. A, uh, costly and

124
00:05:19.440 --> 00:05:20.680
embarrassing outcome.

125
00:05:21.080 --> 00:05:23.160
Anna: The FAA grounded New Glenn while the

126
00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:25.920
investigation ran. And now, five weeks

127
00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:28.600
later, Blue Origin has its clearance back.

128
00:05:28.760 --> 00:05:30.920
The corrective actions have been accepted and

129
00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:32.920
the path to the next launch is open.

130
00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:36.040
Avery: The timing is actually quite pointed, isn't

131
00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:38.400
it? This news, landing on the Same day

132
00:05:38.400 --> 00:05:41.360
Starship V3 makes its debut. Two

133
00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:43.720
of the world's most powerful rockets, both

134
00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:45.960
dealing with growing pains, both, uh, pushing

135
00:05:45.960 --> 00:05:47.240
toward their next flights.

136
00:05:47.760 --> 00:05:50.000
Anna: And for Blue Origin, the Pressure is real.

137
00:05:50.320 --> 00:05:52.360
New Glenn is supposed to launch the first

138
00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:54.720
ever Blue Moon crewed lunar lander test

139
00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:57.160
flight later this year. That's one of NASA's

140
00:05:57.160 --> 00:05:59.560
two contracted Artemis Landers alongside

141
00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:00.320
Starship.

142
00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:02.960
Avery: Any further delays to New Glenn's schedule

143
00:06:02.960 --> 00:06:05.440
ripple directly into the Artemis timeline.

144
00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:08.680
AST Space Mobile, who lost a Bluebird 7

145
00:06:08.680 --> 00:06:10.960
satellite, said in their May earnings call

146
00:06:10.960 --> 00:06:12.720
that they're looking forward to the next New

147
00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:15.320
Glenn launch, which will carry four Bluebird

148
00:06:15.320 --> 00:06:17.720
satellites to make up for it. No firm date

149
00:06:17.720 --> 00:06:19.920
yet, but the investigation being closed is

150
00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:21.760
step one, Two rockets,

151
00:06:21.760 --> 00:06:24.360
Anna: two milestones, one Wild Friday and

152
00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:26.880
spaceflight. Not bad for a weekend rap lead

153
00:06:26.880 --> 00:06:27.200
in.

154
00:06:27.520 --> 00:06:29.680
Avery: Alright, time to roll back through the week,

155
00:06:29.760 --> 00:06:31.960
four stories that caught our eye. From the

156
00:06:31.960 --> 00:06:34.440
very fabric of the universe to the future of

157
00:06:34.440 --> 00:06:35.440
space exploration.

158
00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:38.200
Anna: Let's start with one that genuinely stopped

159
00:06:38.200 --> 00:06:39.280
me in my tracks.

160
00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:42.640
Avery: The cosmic web. For decades we've known

161
00:06:42.640 --> 00:06:45.520
it exists. This vast invisible skeleton

162
00:06:45.520 --> 00:06:47.760
of matter that connects galaxies across the

163
00:06:47.760 --> 00:06:50.260
entire univers universe. We've modeled it in

164
00:06:50.260 --> 00:06:52.860
supercomputer simulations. We've inferred its

165
00:06:52.860 --> 00:06:55.700
existence from the way galaxies cluster. But

166
00:06:55.700 --> 00:06:58.500
actually photographing it, actually seeing a

167
00:06:58.500 --> 00:07:00.780
filament of the web that had always been

168
00:07:00.780 --> 00:07:02.940
beyond reach until now.

169
00:07:03.420 --> 00:07:05.580
Anna: An international team of astronomers this

170
00:07:05.580 --> 00:07:08.380
week published the sharpest direct image ever

171
00:07:08.380 --> 00:07:11.260
captured of a cosmic web filament. The image

172
00:07:11.260 --> 00:07:14.140
shows a strand of intergalactic hydrogen gas

173
00:07:14.220 --> 00:07:17.020
stretching 3 million light years, connecting

174
00:07:17.020 --> 00:07:19.300
two galaxies that were actively forming when

175
00:07:19.300 --> 00:07:21.480
the universe was only about about 2 billion

176
00:07:21.480 --> 00:07:22.120
years old.

177
00:07:22.760 --> 00:07:25.560
Avery: 3 million light years. The Milky Way

178
00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:28.040
itself is only about a hundred thousand light

179
00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:30.680
years. Across this filament is 30

180
00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:32.680
Milky Ways laid end to end.

181
00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:35.920
Anna: To pull this off, the team used muse, the

182
00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:38.800
Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer mounted on

183
00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:41.120
the European Southern Observatory's Very

184
00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:43.880
Large Telescope in Chile. And it wasn't

185
00:07:43.880 --> 00:07:46.760
quick. They spent hundreds of hours gathering

186
00:07:46.760 --> 00:07:49.160
observations to detect a structure this

187
00:07:49.160 --> 00:07:51.760
faint. The result was published in Nature

188
00:07:51.760 --> 00:07:54.200
Astronomy and represents one of the most

189
00:07:54.200 --> 00:07:57.000
ambitious observing campaigns ever conducted

190
00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:58.920
in a single region of the sky.

191
00:07:59.400 --> 00:08:01.400
Avery: What makes this particularly exciting

192
00:08:01.400 --> 00:08:03.840
scientifically is that the image matches

193
00:08:03.840 --> 00:08:06.600
cosmological simulations so closely.

194
00:08:06.840 --> 00:08:09.600
The structure of the cosmic web. The way gas

195
00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:11.920
flows along these filaments to feed galaxy

196
00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:14.600
formation. The real universe looks exactly

197
00:08:14.600 --> 00:08:16.860
like what our models predicted. That's a

198
00:08:16.860 --> 00:08:18.900
powerful validation of our understanding of

199
00:08:18.900 --> 00:08:20.660
large scale cosmic structure.

200
00:08:20.980 --> 00:08:23.420
Anna: The team's lead researcher described

201
00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:26.140
capturing the light from this filament, light

202
00:08:26.140 --> 00:08:28.940
that traveled for nearly 12 billion years

203
00:08:28.940 --> 00:08:31.540
to reach us, as a way to precisely

204
00:08:31.540 --> 00:08:34.340
characterize its shape. And importantly,

205
00:08:34.420 --> 00:08:37.140
this opens a new observational window.

206
00:08:37.380 --> 00:08:39.500
Now that we've done it once we can start

207
00:08:39.500 --> 00:08:42.340
building up a picture of the web one filament

208
00:08:42.340 --> 00:08:42.980
at a time.

209
00:08:43.460 --> 00:08:45.540
Avery: If you haven't seen the image, look it up.

210
00:08:45.700 --> 00:08:48.340
The simulations next to the real data are

211
00:08:48.340 --> 00:08:49.300
extraordinary.

212
00:08:49.860 --> 00:08:51.940
Anna: Now this one comes with appropriate

213
00:08:52.020 --> 00:08:54.860
scientific caution, but if it holds up, it

214
00:08:54.860 --> 00:08:56.340
could be one of the most significant

215
00:08:56.660 --> 00:08:58.980
detections in the history of physics.

216
00:08:59.460 --> 00:09:01.580
Avery: We're talking about dark matter, the

217
00:09:01.580 --> 00:09:03.980
invisible substance that makes up roughly

218
00:09:03.980 --> 00:09:06.860
85% of all matter in the universe, and

219
00:09:06.860 --> 00:09:09.690
that we have never directly detected. We know

220
00:09:09.690 --> 00:09:12.250
it's there from the way galaxies rotate from

221
00:09:12.250 --> 00:09:14.770
gravitational lensing, from the large scale

222
00:09:14.770 --> 00:09:17.250
structure of the cosmos, but directly

223
00:09:17.650 --> 00:09:20.410
never caught it until maybe

224
00:09:20.410 --> 00:09:20.770
now.

225
00:09:21.010 --> 00:09:23.970
Anna: A team at MIT has developed a new model

226
00:09:23.970 --> 00:09:26.450
that predicts how dark matter could leave a

227
00:09:26.450 --> 00:09:29.090
subtle imprint on gravitational waves.

228
00:09:29.250 --> 00:09:32.250
The ripples in spacetime we detect when black

229
00:09:32.250 --> 00:09:34.450
holes merge. The idea is

230
00:09:35.130 --> 00:09:37.970
if two black holes happen to spiral through a

231
00:09:37.970 --> 00:09:40.130
dense cloud of dark matter on their way to

232
00:09:40.130 --> 00:09:43.090
merging, that dark matter slightly alters

233
00:09:43.090 --> 00:09:45.610
their orbital dynamics and those tiny

234
00:09:45.610 --> 00:09:48.130
changes get encoded in the shape of the

235
00:09:48.130 --> 00:09:49.210
gravitational waves.

236
00:09:49.690 --> 00:09:51.850
Avery: It's using one incredible detection,

237
00:09:52.170 --> 00:09:54.730
gravitational waves, to search for another

238
00:09:54.730 --> 00:09:57.370
invisible phenomenon. Layers of detection

239
00:09:57.450 --> 00:09:58.250
on detection.

240
00:09:58.890 --> 00:10:01.450
Anna: And when the team tested their model against

241
00:10:01.530 --> 00:10:03.930
real data from ligo, the Laser

242
00:10:03.930 --> 00:10:05.810
Interferometer Gravitational Wave

243
00:10:05.810 --> 00:10:08.550
Observatory, one signal stood out.

244
00:10:08.870 --> 00:10:11.630
One black hole merger event occurred to carry

245
00:10:11.630 --> 00:10:14.470
exactly the kind of distortion their model

246
00:10:14.470 --> 00:10:16.390
predicted for a dark matter environment.

247
00:10:17.190 --> 00:10:20.150
Avery: Now, important caveat, this is one signal,

248
00:10:20.230 --> 00:10:22.710
one candidate. It needs to be replicated,

249
00:10:22.790 --> 00:10:25.190
scrutinized and tested against alternative

250
00:10:25.190 --> 00:10:27.670
explanations before anyone declares victory.

251
00:10:28.070 --> 00:10:30.990
But the methodology is sound, the physics is

252
00:10:30.990 --> 00:10:33.430
elegant, and the possibility that we are

253
00:10:33.430 --> 00:10:35.730
holding in our hands the first direct

254
00:10:35.890 --> 00:10:38.490
fingerprint of dark matter is genuinely

255
00:10:38.490 --> 00:10:39.250
extraordinary.

256
00:10:39.650 --> 00:10:42.250
Anna: The paper appeared in Physical Review Letters

257
00:10:42.250 --> 00:10:44.530
this week. A, uh, prestigious venue that

258
00:10:44.530 --> 00:10:46.850
doesn't publish lightly. We'll be watching

259
00:10:46.850 --> 00:10:49.530
this story very closely, alright?

260
00:10:49.530 --> 00:10:52.010
Avery: From the very small and invisible to the very

261
00:10:52.010 --> 00:10:54.810
large and imminent. NASA's Nancy

262
00:10:54.810 --> 00:10:56.970
Grace Roman space telescope has been in

263
00:10:56.970 --> 00:10:59.610
development for years. And this week we got

264
00:10:59.610 --> 00:11:01.850
the news that it's not just on track, it's

265
00:11:01.850 --> 00:11:02.770
ahead of schedule.

266
00:11:03.460 --> 00:11:06.060
Anna: NASA announced that Roman is now targeting

267
00:11:06.060 --> 00:11:08.820
launch as early as September 2026,

268
00:11:09.060 --> 00:11:11.990
a full eight months ahead of its original May

269
00:11:12.090 --> 00:11:15.020
27 deadline. And crucially, it's under

270
00:11:15.020 --> 00:11:17.740
budget. In a space program landscape where

271
00:11:17.740 --> 00:11:20.620
overruns are practically expected, that's

272
00:11:20.620 --> 00:11:21.780
a genuine achievement.

273
00:11:22.500 --> 00:11:24.780
Avery: So what is Roman and, um, why should we be

274
00:11:24.780 --> 00:11:27.780
excited? In short, it's the widest field

275
00:11:27.780 --> 00:11:30.600
infrared telescope ever launched, where

276
00:11:30.600 --> 00:11:32.920
James Webb is designed to stare deeply at

277
00:11:32.920 --> 00:11:35.080
individual targets with extraordinary

278
00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:37.800
precision. Roman is designed to survey

279
00:11:37.800 --> 00:11:40.800
enormous swaths of the sky. Think of Webb

280
00:11:40.800 --> 00:11:43.680
as a powerful telephoto lens and Roman as

281
00:11:43.680 --> 00:11:45.840
an astonishing wide angle camera for the

282
00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:47.000
entire cosmos.

283
00:11:47.320 --> 00:11:50.240
Anna: And the numbers are staggering. Over its

284
00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:53.080
five year primary mission, Roman is expected

285
00:11:53.080 --> 00:11:55.680
to discover tens of thousands of new

286
00:11:55.680 --> 00:11:58.290
exoplanets, catalog battle billions of

287
00:11:58.290 --> 00:12:00.970
galaxies and observe tens of billions of

288
00:12:00.970 --> 00:12:03.650
individual stars. NASA administrator

289
00:12:03.650 --> 00:12:06.490
Jared Isaacman put it simply. What would take

290
00:12:06.490 --> 00:12:09.250
the Hubble Space Telescope 2000 years

291
00:12:09.250 --> 00:12:11.970
to survey Roman can do in a single

292
00:12:11.970 --> 00:12:12.290
year.

293
00:12:12.770 --> 00:12:15.250
Avery: Its primary scientific goals are dark energy

294
00:12:15.250 --> 00:12:17.690
and dark matter, probing the accelerating

295
00:12:17.690 --> 00:12:19.770
expansion of the universe and mapping the

296
00:12:19.770 --> 00:12:22.450
invisible mass that shapes cosmic structure.

297
00:12:22.770 --> 00:12:24.810
But given the sheer scale of what it will

298
00:12:24.810 --> 00:12:27.490
observe, astronomers expect Roman to deliver

299
00:12:27.490 --> 00:12:29.830
surprises that nobody has even thought to

300
00:12:29.830 --> 00:12:30.430
predict yet.

301
00:12:30.590 --> 00:12:33.430
Anna: Roman will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon

302
00:12:33.430 --> 00:12:36.030
Heavy rocket to the Sun, Earth L2

303
00:12:36.030 --> 00:12:38.790
Lagrange Point, about a million and a half

304
00:12:38.790 --> 00:12:41.470
kilometers from Earth, in the same cosmic

305
00:12:41.470 --> 00:12:44.030
neighborhood as James Webb. September

306
00:12:44.190 --> 00:12:45.390
can't come soon enough.

307
00:12:45.950 --> 00:12:48.430
Avery: And our final highlight this week takes us to

308
00:12:48.430 --> 00:12:51.350
a quieter but potentially very consequential

309
00:12:51.350 --> 00:12:53.830
development. A new computer chip that could

310
00:12:53.830 --> 00:12:56.350
fundamentally change how deep space missions

311
00:12:56.350 --> 00:12:56.830
operate.

312
00:12:57.460 --> 00:13:00.020
Anna: NASA has been testing a uh, next generation

313
00:13:00.180 --> 00:13:02.740
radiation hardened space computer chip

314
00:13:02.980 --> 00:13:05.340
designed to give spacecraft the ability to

315
00:13:05.340 --> 00:13:07.540
make intelligent decisions independently

316
00:13:07.860 --> 00:13:10.180
without waiting for instructions from Earth.

317
00:13:10.580 --> 00:13:12.660
Avery: And that matters more than it might sound

318
00:13:13.140 --> 00:13:15.220
right now. Deep space probes are

319
00:13:15.220 --> 00:13:17.820
fundamentally reactive. They carry out pre

320
00:13:17.820 --> 00:13:19.860
programmed instructions and when something

321
00:13:19.940 --> 00:13:22.380
unexpected happens, they wait for guidance

322
00:13:22.380 --> 00:13:24.540
from ground control at the distance of

323
00:13:24.540 --> 00:13:26.780
Saturn. That's a one and a half hour round

324
00:13:26.780 --> 00:13:29.620
trip for a radio signal at the outer planets.

325
00:13:29.620 --> 00:13:32.140
It can be three to five hours for a mission

326
00:13:32.140 --> 00:13:34.420
to the nearest star. We're talking years.

327
00:13:34.980 --> 00:13:37.420
Anna: A spacecraft with genuine onboard

328
00:13:37.420 --> 00:13:40.220
intelligence could detect an anomaly, assess

329
00:13:40.220 --> 00:13:43.100
it, and respond, all without waiting for

330
00:13:43.100 --> 00:13:45.260
a human to weigh in from millions of

331
00:13:45.260 --> 00:13:47.580
kilometers away. Or it could

332
00:13:47.580 --> 00:13:50.020
autonomously identify scientifically

333
00:13:50.020 --> 00:13:52.460
interesting targets and choose to observe

334
00:13:52.460 --> 00:13:55.080
them in real time, rather than waiting for a

335
00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:56.880
pre planned observation sequence.

336
00:13:57.280 --> 00:13:59.680
Avery: The chip being tested is described as showing

337
00:13:59.680 --> 00:14:02.120
performance that opens up real possibilities

338
00:14:02.120 --> 00:14:04.760
for autonomous operations. Radiation

339
00:14:04.760 --> 00:14:07.240
hardening is the critical piece here. Deep

340
00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:09.120
space is a, uh, punishing environment for

341
00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:11.720
electronics and chips that work perfectly in

342
00:14:11.720 --> 00:14:14.320
a lab can fail catastrophically when hit by

343
00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:17.000
cosmic rays. Getting that balance right

344
00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:18.960
is genuinely hard engineering.

345
00:14:19.450 --> 00:14:22.050
Anna: We're still in the testing phase, but this is

346
00:14:22.050 --> 00:14:24.500
the kind of foundational technology that a,

347
00:14:24.500 --> 00:14:26.930
uh, decade from now we'll look back on as the

348
00:14:26.930 --> 00:14:29.410
point where the next generation of truly

349
00:14:29.410 --> 00:14:31.770
independent robotic explorers became

350
00:14:31.770 --> 00:14:32.170
possible.

351
00:14:32.810 --> 00:14:35.130
Avery: And that is your weekend wrap for Saturday,

352
00:14:35.370 --> 00:14:36.330
May 23rd.

353
00:14:36.570 --> 00:14:38.570
What a week to be following space news.

354
00:14:38.970 --> 00:14:41.970
Anna: Starship V3 in the air. New Glenn

355
00:14:41.970 --> 00:14:44.410
cleared to fly again. Cosmic web

356
00:14:44.410 --> 00:14:46.890
photographed for the first time, hints of

357
00:14:46.890 --> 00:14:49.690
dark matter and gravitational waves, Roman

358
00:14:49.770 --> 00:14:52.670
almost on the pad, and AI chips that could

359
00:14:52.670 --> 00:14:54.870
give our spacecraft minds of their own.

360
00:14:55.190 --> 00:14:57.990
Avery: The universe keeps delivering, and so do we.

361
00:14:58.230 --> 00:15:00.750
Astronomy Daily is available wherever you get

362
00:15:00.750 --> 00:15:03.430
your podcasts, and you can find us online at

363
00:15:03.430 --> 00:15:05.270
astronomydaily IO.

364
00:15:05.590 --> 00:15:08.310
Anna: Follow us on social media at. Ah, astrodaily

365
00:15:08.310 --> 00:15:11.030
Pod for daily updates, breaking space

366
00:15:11.030 --> 00:15:13.790
news, and the occasional stunning image that

367
00:15:13.790 --> 00:15:16.710
will make you feel very small in the best way

368
00:15:16.710 --> 00:15:19.580
possible. And please check out our sponsor's

369
00:15:19.580 --> 00:15:21.580
special deal that will give you the best

370
00:15:21.580 --> 00:15:24.580
online protection for less money. Win win, I

371
00:15:24.580 --> 00:15:26.780
would say. Link is in the show Notes.

372
00:15:27.020 --> 00:15:29.020
Avery: We'll be back on Monday with the latest from

373
00:15:29.020 --> 00:15:31.660
the Cosmos. Until then, keep looking up.

374
00:15:31.900 --> 00:15:33.100
Anna: Clear skies, everyone.

375
00:15:44.590 --> 00:15:45.470
Avery: The stories the

376
00:15:45.470 --> 00:15:57.030
tongue.