Dec. 9, 2024

Gravitational Wave Wonders, Lunar Orbits & Satellite Showdowns: #476 Q&A

Space Nuts #476 Q&A: Gravitational Waves, Space Stations, and Ultra Massive Black Holes
Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson in this engaging Q&A edition of Space Nuts as they tackle intriguing questions from listeners worldwide. From...

Show Notes
Transcript

Space Nuts #476 Q&A: Gravitational Waves, Space Stations, and Ultra Massive Black Holes
Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson in this engaging Q&A edition of Space Nuts as they tackle intriguing questions from listeners worldwide. From the curious nature of gravitational waves to the feasibility of a dual orbiting space station, and the mystery of ultra massive black holes, this episode is full of cosmic conundrums and insightful discussions.
Episode Highlights:
- Gravitational Waves Conundrum: Explore whether gravitational waves can reflect or refract like light or sound waves. Understand the unique nature of these quadrupole waves and how they interact with the fabric of Space.
- Orbiting Space Stations: Delve into the concept of a space station orbiting both Earth and the Moon in a figure 8 pattern. Discuss the challenges of such an endeavour and its potential impact on lunar missions.
- China's Satellite Constellations: Examine the implications of China's new satellite constellation and the efforts to reduce their visibility, similar to SpaceX's Starlink.
- Ultra Massive Black Holes: Investigate the possibility of ultra massive black holes residing in cosmic voids and their potential role in the universe's large-scale structure.
- Spacesuit Compatibility Issues: Understand the challenges faced by astronauts due to incompatible spacesuits between Boeing's Starliner and SpaceX's Dragon capsule.
For more Space Nuts, including our continually updating newsfeed and to listen to all our episodes, visit our website. Follow us on social media at SpaceNutsPod on facebook, X, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favourite platform.
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Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing.
00:00 - This edition of Space Nuts will focus on gravitational waves
01:28 - Colin asks is there any evidence that gravitational waves reflect or refract
06:25 - Is it possible to have a space station orbiting both Earth and the moon
09:39 - With China adding a new, currently visible satellite constellation, are discussions being had
13:39 - Professor Fred Watson answers audience questions in Q and A edition
19:55 - Your final question reflects on an issue we spoke about recently
21:09 - Mark asks about spacesuit compatibility between Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Dragon
26:51 - If you have questions for us, please send them through via our website
✍️ Episode References
SpaceX
https://www.spacex.com/
Starlink
https://www.starlink.com/
Apollo 8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8
Artemis Programme
https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/
International Space Station (ISS)
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
USA Today
https://www.usatoday.com/
Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS)
https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/copuos/index.html

WEBVTT

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Hi there, Thanks for joining us on a Q and

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a edition of Space Nuts. Andrew Dunpley here. Hope you're well.

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I hope you can stick around a while because we've

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got questions from all over the world and they will

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be focusing on gravitational waves, an interesting question about how

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they behave or do they behave in certain ways. We're

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going to talk orbiting space stations and super constellations, which

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is certainly an issue around the planet at the moment.

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An observation, I suppose with a question as the kicker

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about dark energy and ultra mass black holes and noncompatible

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spacesuits has been brought up again. We'll talk about all

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of that on this edition of Space Nuts.

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Fifteen second to the Channel ten nine ignition Space Nuts

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or three two.

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Space Nuts. As when I report it, Mel Good, he's back.

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I don't know why he keeps coming back, but he's

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back again. It's Professor Fred. What's an hello?

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Fred?

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I'm only back because I can't actually get out of

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this room. I'm just locked in here all the time.

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So yeah, I mean, I tell you you're never left.

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No, it's the Tardis effect.

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Shall we get straight into it and answer some questions.

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I think we should yes, or at least pretend to. Okay,

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this first question comes from Colin. I'm not sure where

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Colin is, but he asks, is there any evidence that

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gravitational waves reflect and or refract like pressure or light waves.

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I know we've talked about gravitational waves a lot, but

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I don't know if we've really analyzed this particular aspect

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of their behavior, if it exists at all.

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We haven't. And it's a good question because we you know,

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we know that lightweight which are transverse waves, so like

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things are vibrating kind of horizontally or vertically, they are

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refracted and reflected. And sound waves are too, which are

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pressure waves. They are longitudinal waves changes in pressure. Now,

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gravitational waves are neither of those things. They are quadruple waves,

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which means that space is sort of distorting in a

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peculiar way when they travel through. But here's the crunch, Andrew,

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And there's Jordy agreeing with me, which probably means that

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on his back. So you'll go berserk in a minute.

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But that's all right. Here's the crunch. How do you

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so think about refraction? This is the bending of light

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when light passes into for example, a piece of glass.

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Why does light refract in a piece of glass? Why

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does its angle change? And it's because the speed of

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light in a piece of glass is lower than it

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is in free air or a vacuum, and so the

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light waves are slowed down when they pass into the glass,

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and that produces the bending phenomena refraction. Now, gravitational waves

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are not like that. They always travel at the speed

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of light, so they're not refracted in the same way

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that we would imagine light being refracted. That phenomenon doesn't

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exist for gravitational waves. What does exist, though, is we

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know that space time is distorted by matter that comes

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from Einstein's general theory of relativity, and space time is distorted,

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but light wants to follow the distortion. In other words,

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the light doesn't know that it's going through distorted space time,

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and so it just follows the distortion. And that's why

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we see gravitational lenses. Because the space time around at

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cluster of galaxies is distorted. The light just goes on

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its merry way at the same speed, and it's not refraction.

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It's gravitational lensing. It's bending by gravity, and gravitational waves

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behave in the same way. So they do bend, but

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it's not through refraction, it's through gravitational distortion of space.

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Work that one, now, so that means gravitational waves just

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keep going.

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They're going what they think is a straight line, but

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the straight line isn't straight because it's because the space

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is distorted by it. They're called geodesics. It's it's basically

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how so that's the way we believe orbits work in

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in relativity. You know, if you've got a planet that's

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got something in orbit around it, the planet produces a

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well of gravity. You can think of it as a

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trampoline distorted, and an object basically thinks it's going in

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a straight line through that distorted space, but actually it's

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going around in a circle in an orbit. That's sort

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of and the same thing kind of happens to both

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light waves and gravitational waves. They think they're going along

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the straight line, but they're not because the straight line

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is bent by gravitational pool. I'm not explaining this very well.

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I can see that. I can see by the expression

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on your face that you think it's lost it altogether.

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I have no idea what it's still about.

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What kind of bent my mind out of shape. Is

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I expected you to say the opposite. I expect you

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to say, now, gravitational waves. There are power under themselves,

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and they will do what they like and nothing will

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stop them from hitting a straight line. But that's not true.

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Although they think, yeah, well it is.

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They behave as though they're following a straight line, but

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that straight line is distorted by the gravitational pull of

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something else, you know, like a cluster of galaxies.

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Yeah, so they are affected.

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They are affected, yes, but it's not quite the same

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as reflection or refraction as Colins proposed.

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Interesting, very interesting.

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It's a great question, Colin, and thank you for that.

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Yeah, absolute ripper. All right, thanks Colin. Our next question

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comes from Michael Whiting in Chroma in the UK. Hi,

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Andrew and Fred long term listener, and would like to

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say thank you for a brilliant podcast which I look

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forward to every week. Thank you. Thinking about the future,

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going back to the Moon, et cetera, is it possible

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to have a space station orbiting both Earth and the

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Moon in say technical terms a figure eight. I'm assuming

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it is possible, but radiation shielding is more the issue.

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This would surely make it easier to transit for Moon.

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That's his first question. When we deal with that one,

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I'll ask the second question. So I like this idea

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if it's feasible.

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Well, it is absolutely And that's actually if you've got

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to look back to nineteen sixty eight and look at

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the trajectory of Apollo eight exactly what it did. It

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followed a figure eight orbit around the Earth and the Moon,

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and that you could set up a stable for a

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bit like that, But it doesn't really make for an

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easier transit for Moon missions. Because if you've got something

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that's in a figure eight of a figure of eight

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orbit's going from Earth to going between the Earth and

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the Moon. When you you know, I suppose you imagine

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that's the kind of space station you want to jump

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on board it. To jump on board, you've got to

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have a spacecraft that is following exactly that orbit. Yeah,

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you've gotta loannch it and get it into that orbit

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in order for you to make the rendezvous between the two. Now, yes,

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maybe if you have a something like the Gateway that

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the Gateway satellite which is being proposed as part of

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the Artemis program, in orbit around the Moon, then that's

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like a space station which has lots and lots of

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facilities on board, which are a little transit shuttle might

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not have a transit shuttle, might look more like a

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crew dragon spacecraft or you know what are they called?

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I can never remember its name, the bullying what are you?

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Star liners? What that was the name I thought of,

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and I was thinking, No, it's not a star lineer

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that's an aircraft.

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No, but it is.

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It is. It's a star liner, yeah, the star liner.

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So you know, they're very modest pieces of equipment. They

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can hold up to seven people, but there will be

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a crowded, crowded house. So I guess you could do

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that if you've got this sort of gateway like space

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station that is constantly in a figure of eight orbit,

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and you zoom your passengers up to it, hop on

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and it acts like a boss, then you've got to

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hop off at the other end before it brings you

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back to Earth. I'm not sure that it would make

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life easier. I think it might make life a bit

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more complicated. But it could be done, Yes, it could

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be done.

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Yeah, all right, so you're thinking, is right, Michael, But

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operationally might prove too much of a headache. Michael's got

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another question. With China adding a new currently visible satellite constellation,

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our discussions being had to decrease the visibility of the

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satellites as was achieved with space x Starlink constellations. Follow

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up question to that, does China, Thanks Mike, and this.

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This question goes right to the heart of stuff. I

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talk about a lot, and you know part of my role.

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There's the astronomer on the loose. The answer is yes,

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kean Fan I think is the name of the satellite?

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Am I have that long? Because it's a few days

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since I looked at it. It means a thousand sales.

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That's the name of it. And there fifteen thousand satellites

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I think have been filed for in this constellation. All

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the evidence I think last time I looked there were

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about forty in orbit. Now with mounting evidence that they

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are pretty bright. Then as use exactly as as Michael says,

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SpaceX did a lot of work to reduce the visible

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light profile of the Stylink satellites. We don't think that's

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happened with Kian Fan, and we don't really have any

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avenues into the company that is running them in China.

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Now my hope is that this will change because we

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now have satellite constellation interference to dark and quiet skies.

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That is now an agender item on the Committee on

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the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, the UN Committee on

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the Peaceful Use is of outer Space. They have a

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Science and Technical subcommittee and it's now an agender item

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on that committee, so that raises its profile. China is

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a player in this forum. They come to the party

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with the kopuas that committee. So my hope is that

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there will be avenues for improvement with that, But at

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the moment we don't know.

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Yeah, that's a pity. I mean, they have a vested

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interest in space exploration and understanding as much as anybody else,

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so I suspect that it would be in their best

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interest and they would benefit from insulating their satellites, so

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to speak, to reduce the impact on observational and radio

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astronomy from the ground.

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That's right. In fact, that's exactly the comment. I was

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in a meeting a few months ago now and I

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made exactly that comment that China has a very large

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cohort of astronomers who are themselves using well amongst the

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biggest single dish radio telescope in the world, the fast

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telescope five hundred meter radio dish, and they also have

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optical telescopes, so they would have a voice within China

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and hopefully the space industry in China will listen to them.

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So so my you know, I'm an eternal optimist Andrew,

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as you know. But the answer to Mike's last question

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does China listen? Is we hope they will.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, fair point and really great question to ask. Probably

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it's a scary question to ask because you just you

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don't know what China they get. They get offended at

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things out of the blue, and you know, and they

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stopped buying our wine and thanks it.

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Was twenty billion dollars worth of of trade exactly. Yeah.

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Anyway, great questions, Mike, Thanks for sending them in. This

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is Space Nuts Andrew Uncley with Professor Fred what's a

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Space Nuts. Yep, it's a Q and A edition where

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we answer audience questions. And we've got an audio question

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now from one of our regular sender in errors. It's

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Rusty for donny.

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Brook and Andrew, it's Rusty in donny Brook. When the

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Dark Energy said you really suck? What did the ultramassive

215
00:14:10.600 --> 00:14:16.360
black holes, say in response, nothing, it was to taken

216
00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:20.320
aback to get a word out. Now, if black hole

217
00:14:21.080 --> 00:14:25.919
truly generate dark energy, it's got to be a local

218
00:14:25.960 --> 00:14:31.799
phenomenon because our study of gravitational waves have shown us

219
00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:34.679
that space time distorts at speed of light.

220
00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:40.840
The effect would be too small to be able to

221
00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:46.279
measure it in stellar mass black holes, but as we

222
00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:51.600
get bigger the effect would be too clutted in super

223
00:14:51.639 --> 00:14:57.519
massive black holes in galaxies too, so that leaves ultra

224
00:14:57.639 --> 00:15:00.120
massive black holes in the center of large.

225
00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:05.919
Which, if there are any. The hair Wooden astronomer specializing

226
00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:13.399
in multiple objects spectrometry Fred make observations to gain support

227
00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:16.840
for the existence of such ultramatic black holes and the

228
00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:18.440
granular nature of dark energy.

229
00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:22.720
So this would replace the notion that large scale structure

230
00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:22.879
of the.

231
00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:27.960
Universe was caused by tonic oscillations in the early universe.

232
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Two.

233
00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:31.480
So thanks space nuts, have a good and.

234
00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:36.679
Thanks Rusty. I'm always worried about Rusty because he just

235
00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:39.600
tries to throw your curveball occasionally, Fred, And I don't

236
00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:41.120
know if he's just tried again.

237
00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:46.080
Yeah, I mean, the lovely thing about Rusty is that

238
00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:51.799
in three minutes. He rewrites all the textbooks. It throws away.

239
00:15:51.840 --> 00:15:54.240
The big bank throws away. Dark energes don't throw away.

240
00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:54.720
They do bag.

241
00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:57.639
But I see where he's the point he's making because

242
00:15:57.639 --> 00:16:02.080
we've covered this idea before that dark the ultimate source

243
00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:05.159
of dark energy might be black holes. That's some research

244
00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:11.200
that I think was done earlier this year, and so

245
00:16:12.279 --> 00:16:16.559
Rusty's conclusion from that is that dark energy must be clumpy,

246
00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:21.559
which I think is a reasonable conclusion. But I don't

247
00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:26.360
know that that is the conclusion that's drawn by the

248
00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:29.600
people who are the proponent of this theory. I need

249
00:16:29.720 --> 00:16:32.159
to go and have and I look back at the

250
00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:35.799
theory of black holes being the source of dark energy.

251
00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:38.720
But if there were, so, look, I'll rise to the

252
00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:46.360
challenge as a multi object spectroscopist, which I'm not really anymore,

253
00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:50.200
but I was, I wouldn't that this would not be

254
00:16:50.679 --> 00:16:53.679
the technique, the technique that you'd use though to detect them.

255
00:16:53.919 --> 00:16:59.519
So what what Rusty's proposing is that there are these

256
00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:03.240
things ultramassive black holes, which I guess we might say

257
00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:07.119
are more than one hundred billion times the massive the sun.

258
00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:12.519
They will there monsters, absolute monsters, and they're lurking around

259
00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:19.920
in the voids between galaxies. Now, those voids are part

260
00:17:20.039 --> 00:17:23.279
of the sort of honeycomb structure of the universe that

261
00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:25.839
we think was imprinted in the Big Bang. That the

262
00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:30.759
work that people do on the physics of the Big

263
00:17:30.839 --> 00:17:33.799
Bang event tell you that there will be these strings

264
00:17:33.799 --> 00:17:38.920
of dark matter which would collect hydrogen gas, which would

265
00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:42.359
form stars and galaxies and so. But those strings and

266
00:17:42.519 --> 00:17:45.599
sheets of dark matter make essentially what looks like a

267
00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:47.839
foam or a honeycomb pattern when you look on very

268
00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:50.200
large scales. So in the middle of that, there are

269
00:17:50.319 --> 00:17:51.279
very few galaxies.

270
00:17:51.640 --> 00:17:52.400
So if you put.

271
00:17:52.319 --> 00:17:55.720
An ultra massive black hole in the middle of that,

272
00:17:55.920 --> 00:17:59.440
what would you see? And the answer is you would

273
00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:03.440
expect to see when you looked in that direction, because

274
00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:05.359
you'll be able to see the galaxies on the far

275
00:18:05.559 --> 00:18:09.200
side of that void, a sheet of galaxies. You would

276
00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:12.680
expect their images to be distorted in the way that

277
00:18:12.839 --> 00:18:17.119
we are familiar with gravitational lensing by a massive massive object.

278
00:18:18.440 --> 00:18:24.759
And so I don't believe that such distortions have been found.

279
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:27.079
In other words, you know what you might see is

280
00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:30.839
is nothing, because there's a black hole that sorry, you'd

281
00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:33.680
see no evidence of something in the in.

282
00:18:33.720 --> 00:18:34.559
The in the.

283
00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:38.920
Intermediate distance, but in the far distance you'll be able

284
00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:42.400
to see galaxies and clusters of galaxies whose light would

285
00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:45.119
be distorted by the black hole that you couldn't see

286
00:18:45.880 --> 00:18:48.200
in the foreground, if you see what I'm saying. So

287
00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:51.599
I think we have evidence already of such ultra massive

288
00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:52.240
black holes.

289
00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:56.400
Okay, So avoid with a black hole would give you

290
00:18:56.480 --> 00:19:00.839
a vision of distorted galaxies and it's behind it, whereas

291
00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:04.640
a void without a black hole, you just wouldn't see anything.

292
00:19:05.799 --> 00:19:08.039
You'd see the galaxies, but they wouldn't look any from

293
00:19:08.039 --> 00:19:10.799
what they normally look. Yeah right, you know you can

294
00:19:11.160 --> 00:19:14.680
we know from particularly from the new web images, just

295
00:19:14.839 --> 00:19:18.960
how distorted the shapes of galaxies are when when they're

296
00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:23.599
seen through a gravitational lens caused by a cluster of

297
00:19:23.720 --> 00:19:27.279
galaxies in the foreground. So yeah, it's an interesting question though,

298
00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:33.440
as Rusty is always always are Yeah, yeah, he's always thinking.

299
00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:35.640
That's the thing, and that's that's what it's all about,

300
00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:39.119
to provoke thought and come up with ideas and try

301
00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:42.759
to try to challenge those in the in the astronomical

302
00:19:42.839 --> 00:19:46.160
seats of power, such as your good self read yeah,

303
00:19:46.279 --> 00:19:55.400
always always throwing out the challenge, Thank you, Rusty pace Nuts.

304
00:19:55.799 --> 00:19:59.680
And our final question reflects on an issue we spoke

305
00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:02.880
about but fairly recently. This comes from Mark.

306
00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:04.119
Hi.

307
00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:07.559
It's Mark in London and Canada. I was wondering you

308
00:20:07.640 --> 00:20:11.720
were talking recently about the astronauts being stranded and the

309
00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:18.240
Boeing spacesuit being incompatible with the SpaceX vehicle. I was wondering,

310
00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:20.920
what does that mean? Why can't they just wear their suit?

311
00:20:21.240 --> 00:20:25.319
What does the soup plug into the vehicle or what's

312
00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:30.720
the incompatibility? Appreciate an explanation of that, Thanks, guys, and

313
00:20:31.799 --> 00:20:33.759
I figure hughes but in that studio for the best

314
00:20:33.799 --> 00:20:36.839
part of the decade. So it's time to free who

315
00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:38.559
when just started a campaign to let them go on?

316
00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:43.279
Thanks, start a petition, Mark, because I'm not going to

317
00:20:43.319 --> 00:20:49.039
help him. Gosh, people are starting to sympathize with Hugh

318
00:20:49.319 --> 00:20:54.920
and starting to worry me a lot. I'm sounding really

319
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:56.759
evil now you are.

320
00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:01.640
Yeah, you know, look, God, I think I think he

321
00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:05.400
deserves a break. Really, he's got us to put up

322
00:21:05.440 --> 00:21:08.400
with for a start. Yeah, well that's true, that's very true.

323
00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:13.279
Mark asks about space suit compatibility. Now we go back

324
00:21:13.319 --> 00:21:18.079
to that situation where there were I think, with three

325
00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:21.640
astronauts on the International Space Station who couldn't get back

326
00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:23.799
on the Boeing star Liner because of a fault, so

327
00:21:23.960 --> 00:21:26.759
it was sent back empty and they were to be

328
00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:28.599
returned on a space X.

329
00:21:31.240 --> 00:21:31.519
Rocket.

330
00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:36.240
Yeah if you like. But their suits, the Boeing suits

331
00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:42.519
didn't work in the space X vehicle, and there was

332
00:21:42.599 --> 00:21:45.839
talk about sending them back in their underpants or something

333
00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:51.559
because they just, you know, their suits were useless an emergency.

334
00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:54.000
Yeah, that's right, it would two do astronauts, not three

335
00:21:54.039 --> 00:21:56.759
as well. It's sort of Tony Williams and Butch will Moore.

336
00:21:57.160 --> 00:22:02.400
That's right. Yeah, and they're coming back. Are they still there?

337
00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:06.119
Yeah, they don't have it. That still February, that's right.

338
00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:09.319
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, they're the bowing star Liners back.

339
00:22:09.720 --> 00:22:13.440
All good and well, but they're still up there. Mark's

340
00:22:13.480 --> 00:22:15.599
question is a good one. Why can't they just wear

341
00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:17.000
their suits? What's the problem.

342
00:22:18.119 --> 00:22:22.880
So what's happened is that when the SpaceX it's not

343
00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:26.480
a rescue vehicle because it was already scheduled, but when

344
00:22:26.519 --> 00:22:31.160
that SpaceX craft went up to rendezvous of the ISS,

345
00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:33.920
which was last month, was it or earlier this month?

346
00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:36.720
I can't remember. I think it's last month. It took

347
00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:39.880
SpaceX suits up with it. It had a crew of

348
00:22:39.960 --> 00:22:42.799
only two rather than four, and two empty suits for

349
00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:47.039
Butcher Williams, sorry Butcher Willmore and Sunny Williams to come

350
00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:53.519
back with, why do they need that? Well, the star

351
00:22:53.640 --> 00:22:58.880
Liner and the SpaceX Dragon Capsule are completely different. They

352
00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:05.480
were developed independently, and in many ways, NASA wanted two

353
00:23:05.640 --> 00:23:10.000
different ways of transporting their astronauts up and down to

354
00:23:10.039 --> 00:23:15.279
the space station because it gives them a choice, that's

355
00:23:15.359 --> 00:23:17.960
the thing. And it turns out that it's just as

356
00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:22.680
well that they did, because these you know, SpaceX has

357
00:23:22.759 --> 00:23:27.039
had far fewer problems than than Boeing have. If we've

358
00:23:27.079 --> 00:23:30.599
been waiting for Boeing, we would still be waiting, whereas

359
00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:33.240
Crew Dragon has been flying I think since twenty twenty

360
00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:36.079
or thereabouts, quite a while ago, maybe twenty twenty two. Anyway,

361
00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:41.960
they're different spacecraft. They've got different you know, umbilical fittings,

362
00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:48.240
they have different restraint fittings, an entirely different appearance. The

363
00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:51.119
way to check this out, mark is to have a

364
00:23:51.200 --> 00:23:56.400
look at the USA Today website, and there is a

365
00:23:56.480 --> 00:24:00.359
story on that which is entitled you Can't use line

366
00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:04.000
of spacesuits in a SpaceX capsule. These images show why,

367
00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:08.480
and it becomes very obvious because all the plumbing is different.

368
00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:12.680
The spacesuits are themselves quite different. They've got different helmets,

369
00:24:13.559 --> 00:24:18.599
different fittings, different boots, different gloves. Everything's different, and they're

370
00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:21.720
not compassible. That's the bottom line. But it's a very

371
00:24:21.799 --> 00:24:25.200
nice article. Actually, it's got some lovely diagrams and illustrations

372
00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:30.160
showing the differences there. USA Today dot com is the

373
00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:31.079
place to help for that.

374
00:24:31.839 --> 00:24:34.200
I I just found it and I'm just having a

375
00:24:34.279 --> 00:24:36.240
quick squeeze through it, and yeah, you're right, there's some

376
00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:40.480
great diagrams and information in there. And now, just to

377
00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:44.400
clarify it a bit more, I assume when you come

378
00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:48.799
back to Earth you can technically do it without a spacesuit.

379
00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:51.960
So it's not like you have to have the suit

380
00:24:52.039 --> 00:24:53.880
on so that you can breathe or anything like that.

381
00:24:54.759 --> 00:25:00.559
No, that's right. It's it's basically a precaution. You know,

382
00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:05.160
if the if on re entry the spacecraft sprang a leak,

383
00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:08.319
for example, and started depressurizing, if you didn't have your

384
00:25:08.359 --> 00:25:11.039
spacesuit on, you'll be in big trouble. But that's an

385
00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:16.079
unlikely event. They I don't think it's ever happened before,

386
00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:18.160
so it's.

387
00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:21.119
It's it's.

388
00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:25.480
They could have done it exactly as you've said, had

389
00:25:25.519 --> 00:25:30.519
there been an emergency, those astronauts Sonny Williams and Butch

390
00:25:30.559 --> 00:25:33.640
Wilmore could have come back in a crew Dragon flight.

391
00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:38.839
I think they were rigging up sort of emergency seats

392
00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:41.160
in one of the crew Dragon craft just in case

393
00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:43.759
this needed to happen. But yeah, they wouldn't have had

394
00:25:44.039 --> 00:25:49.720
had a spacesuit, so's it would not have been possible

395
00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:51.640
for them to wear spaces on their way back. But

396
00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:55.240

Gravitational Wave Wonders, Lunar Orbits & Satellite Showdowns: #476 Q&A

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Gravitational Wave Wonders, Lunar Orbits & Satellite Showdowns: #476 Q&A

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