Jan. 15, 2024
S27E07| NASA Delays Manned Return to the Moon
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The Space News Podcast.
SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 7
*NASA delays manned return to...
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The Space News Podcast.
SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 7
*NASA delays manned return to the Moon until 2026 NASA has scrubbed this year’s planned manned Artemis 2 mission around the Moon.
*A successful maiden flight for United Launch's new Vulcan Centaur rocket The United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan Centaur rocket has undertaken a successful maiden flight.
*NASA's Parker Solar Probe completes its closest encounter with the Sun NASA's Parker Solar Probe has just undertaken its 18th close approach to the Sun skimming just 7.26 million kilometres above the visible solar surface.
*The Science Report
Scientists have now confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded on planet Earth.
The new cancer testing regime that picks up 18 different early stage cancers
Solving the mystery disappearance of the largest of the great apes from Asia.
Skeptics guide to consciousness
https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com https://bitesz.com
This week’s guests:
Dr. Keith Bannister from the CSIRO
Aaron Roodman Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Brian Nord Fermilab
Ann Elliott Ohio State University
And our regular guests:
Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life
Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics
Listen to SpaceTime on your favorite podcast app with our universal listen link: https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com/listen and access show links via https://linktr.ee/biteszHQ
For more space news podcasts visit our HQ at https://bitesz.com
Your support is needed...
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Together, let's explore the cosmos without limits!
#spacetime #astronomy #space #science #news #Podcast
The Space News Podcast.
SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 7
*NASA delays manned return to the Moon until 2026 NASA has scrubbed this year’s planned manned Artemis 2 mission around the Moon.
*A successful maiden flight for United Launch's new Vulcan Centaur rocket The United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan Centaur rocket has undertaken a successful maiden flight.
*NASA's Parker Solar Probe completes its closest encounter with the Sun NASA's Parker Solar Probe has just undertaken its 18th close approach to the Sun skimming just 7.26 million kilometres above the visible solar surface.
*The Science Report
Scientists have now confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded on planet Earth.
The new cancer testing regime that picks up 18 different early stage cancers
Solving the mystery disappearance of the largest of the great apes from Asia.
Skeptics guide to consciousness
https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com https://bitesz.com
This week’s guests:
Dr. Keith Bannister from the CSIRO
Aaron Roodman Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Brian Nord Fermilab
Ann Elliott Ohio State University
And our regular guests:
Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life
Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics
Listen to SpaceTime on your favorite podcast app with our universal listen link: https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com/listen and access show links via https://linktr.ee/biteszHQ
For more space news podcasts visit our HQ at https://bitesz.com
Your support is needed...
**Support SpaceTime with Stuart Gary: Be Part of Our Cosmic Journey!**
SpaceTime is fueled by passion, not big corporations or grants. We're on a mission to become 100% listener-supported, allowing us to focus solely on bringing you riveting space stories without the interruption of ads. 🌌
**Here's where you shine:**
Help us soar to our goal of 1,000 subscribers! Whether it's just $1 or more, every contribution propels us closer to a universe of ad-free content.
**Elevate Your Experience:**
By joining our cosmic family at the $5 tier, you'll unlock: - Over 400 commercial-free, triple episode editions. - Exclusive extended interviews. - Early access to new episodes every Monday.
Dive in with a month's free trial on Supercast and discover the universe of rewards waiting for you! 🌠🚀 [Join the Journey with SpaceTime](https://bitesznetwork.supercast.tech/) 🌟 [Learn More About Us](https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com)
Together, let's explore the cosmos without limits!
#spacetime #astronomy #space #science #news #Podcast
The Astronomy, Space, Technology & Science News Podcast.
WEBVTT
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This is Spacetime Series twenty seven,
Episode seven, for broadcast on the fifteenth
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of January twenty twenty four. Coming
up on Spacetime, NASA delays a man
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00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:16.359
returned to the lunar's surface until twenty
twenty six. A successful maiden flight for
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00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:22.519
United launches new Vulcan Center rocket,
and NASA's Parker's Solar Probe completes its eighteenth
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close encounter with the Sun. All
that and more coming up on Spacetime Welcome
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to Space Time with Stuart Gary.
NASA has scrubbed this year's planned Artemis two
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00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:56.920
man mission around the Moon. The
agency says the flight, the first to
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tech humans to the Moon in over
fifty years, will be delayed until at
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00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:04.120
least September next year, in the
process, pushing the return of people to
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the lunar surface aboard the Atomis three
mission back from December twenty twenty five until
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at least September twenty twenty six.
NASA has put the delays down to a
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range of safety concerns with the Lockheed
Martin built Orion spacecraft, as well as
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development issues with the new Moon suits
and continuing delays with SpaceX's Starship Mega rocket,
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which will carry crews from the Orion
spacecraft orbiting around the Moon, down
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to the lunar surface and back up
again. The twenty five day unmanned Artemis
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one mission to the Moon back in
November twenty twenty two appeed to go smoothly
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with no serious issues disclosed at the
time. However, it's now been revealed
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that the Artemis one Orion capsule suffered
more extensive charring damage to its ablative heat
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shield during amos free re entry and
was initially expected, and tests on another
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Orion spacecraft have now uncovered a designed
fall with a life support systems electronics,
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as well as a separate issue which
is popped up with one of the battery
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systems. There have also been two
fouled launch attempts from its Texas star base
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by SpaceX's one to twenty one meter
Toll Starship, which are posing serious concerns.
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Both launch failures saw the Starship super
Heavy explode in the skies over the
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Gulf of Mexico. A third test
flight is now planned for next month,
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but the longer it takes to get
Starship into Earth orbit, the longer NASA
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will have to wait before it can
launch its Atomus three mission, and there
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are other complications with Starship as well. SpaceX points out that Starship will need
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to have its fuel tank refilled once
it's in orbit around the Earth before it
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heads off to the Moon. An
estimated ten fuel transfers will be needed to
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do the job, and so SpaceX
are planning to build an orbital fuel depot.
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And there have also been ongoing issues
with the manufacture of the new EVA
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spaces for you from the Lunar's surface, which developed by Houston's Axiom Space.
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The Apollo eraist space suits, which
we used during the late sixties and seventies
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and are still the basis for the
EVA spacesuits used by NASA today, aren't
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really suitable for use on the lunar's
surface. That's because they become damaged by
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the ultra fine but extremely sharp lunar
dust or regulars, which is the Apollo
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astronauts found out became a real problem. Not only did the dust get everywhere
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on the suit, clogging equipment and
causing radiators to overheat, but it was
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so sharp that it quite literally wore
a hole in the knee on the outer
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spacesuit garment. During one geological EVA
NASA Administrator Bill Nilsen says the delays will
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give the atemist teams more time to
work through the challenges. The ten day
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Artemis two mission, which includes three
Americans and one Canadian astronaut, will be
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a full scale, dressed rehearsal for
Atomis three. It'll but the Earth twice
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in order to get enough speed for
translunar injection, taking humans further from the
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Earth than ever before into an extended
lunar orbit that will result in a free
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00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:11.560
return trajectory back to Earth if successful. That'll be followed by the Artemis three
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mission, which will land astronauts on
the Moon's south Pole, which Nilsen describes
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as a different moon from the Sea
of Tranquility, where Apollo eleven astronauts nearl
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Armstrong and buzz Aldron landed in nineteen
sixty nine. The Sea of Tranquility was
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relatively flat terrain. The lunar south
pole, on the other hand, is
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pot marked with dick craters, and
because of the angle of the sunlight,
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most of those craters are in total
darkness. NASA says that delays shouldn't effect
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the following Artemis four mission, which
will be the first to use the new
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00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:46.600
Lunar Gateway Orbital space station. It
currently remains on track for launch. In
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twenty twenty eight, during NASA as
Apollo era, twelve Americans walked on the
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lunar surface, in the process,
winning the space race and demonstrating to Moscow
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that Washington held the ultimate Cold War. Today, the competition isn't the Soviet
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Union, but rather China were expecting
to have taker knots walking on the Moon
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00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:15.000
by twenty thirty this space time still
to come. The United Launch Alliances new
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00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:20.480
Vulcan Centaur rocket undertakes a successful maiden
flight, and NASA's Parker Solar Probe completes
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00:05:20.519 --> 00:05:26.160
its closest encounters so far with the
Sun. All that and more still to
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00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:47.399
come on space time. The United
Launch Alliances new Vulcan Centaur rocket has undertaken
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00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:54.079
a highly successful maiden flight. The
new sixty two meter tall, two stage
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Vulcan Centaur was initially designed to meet
the design to phase out the current Russian
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Idea eight engines used on the Atlas
five, which are no longer being supported
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00:06:03.160 --> 00:06:09.160
by Moscow following the Western boycott of
Russia in response to the Kremlins invasion of
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Ukraine. It also provided the United
Launch Alliance with an opportunity to replace the
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heritage Delta four rocket with a new
single launch system. The Vulcan's twin Blue
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Origin sourced B four liquid methane and
liquid oxygen powered core stage replaces the Keerrot
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scene in liquid oxygen fueled I one
eighties used on the Atlas five, as
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well as the liquid hydrogen on liquid
oxygen core stage engines used on the Delta
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four, and the Vulcan core stage
is designed to be fitted with up to
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00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:44.279
six strap on solid rocket boosters,
depending on payload and target orbit. On
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top of that, there's a new
Centaur five upper stage. It replaces the
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earlier design common Centaur and Centaur three
variants which we used on the Atlas five.
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The mission called CIRT one blasted off
from Space Launch Complex forty one at
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the Cape Canaverals Space for Space in
Florida. Status JECK Go Vulcan Go Centaur
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GO parents ten nine eight seven six
five four three. We have ignition and
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lift off of the first United Launch
Alliance Vulcan rocket, launching a new era
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in space flight to the Moon and
beyond. Just laborating two good SRBs hitting
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peak pressure on the SRBs. Everything
looking good. You got pitching our programs
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in coming into normal rates for that
event. We have good hydraulic pressure on
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both engines, good chamber pressure on
both engines. Everything looking good. Coming
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up on sixty seconds into the flight. Everything looking good, two good engines,
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two good SRBs. Body rates look
good, nice and smooth, and
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we've hit our first throttle point on
the B fours. Everything looking good and
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we have passed through MAK one.
We are now supersonic, coming up on
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max Q at max dynamic pressure.
Everything looking good. We're rolling off on
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the SRBs and we have cut off
on the SRBs, coming up on jettison
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and approximately thirty seconds fifteen seconds that's
their p jet. P fours continue operate
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00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.879
nominally, seeing expected PU activity and
the boost remains and we have separation of
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both SRBs. Everything looking good.
The E fours continue to operate normally.
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We up on two minutes into the
mission. We are now seventeen miles in
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altitude. We just heard confirmation of
solid rocket booster jettison. We have about
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three minutes until we reach our next
mission event. Booster engine cut off and
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we see booster PU correcting towards the
nomenal IMR. Everything looking good. Both
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00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:35.240
engines continue to pre normally, and
we now weigh probably half of our lift
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off weight. Everything looking good,
and we fired the power valve, activating
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the reaction control system on the upper
stage. Pressures are rising as expected.
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P four continues to operate normally.
Vehicles continue to apply down the center of
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the range track. Everything looking good. Thirty three miles in altitude, fifty
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two miles down range, traveling at
four thousand miles per hour. Then you
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see excellent performance out of the b
E four's chamber pressure, Nice and smooth.
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00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:05.399
Vehicles settle accelerating a little over two
g's at this time, good body
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rates, nice and smooth operation of
the booster. Forty seven miles in altitude,
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00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:16.039
ninety five miles down range at fifty
five hundred miles per hour. Engines
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continue to burn normally. Everything looking
good, and the vehicle now weighs one
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quarter of us slipped off weight as
they passed through the carbon line. Next
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mark Wet. We're looking for a
boot space chill down on the centaur.
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Main engines. Boost remains continue to
operate normally, and we've been on boot
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space chill. Housing tents are dropping
as expected. Coming up to the end
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of the boost phase. Prost me
ten seconds to BICO throttle down. In
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00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:45.080
preparation for BICO. We've completed boot
space chill down and we have cut off.
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Coming up on Fulcan Center separation.
We have Vulcan Center separation. Everything
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looking good coming up on the Centaur
phase and experiencing a good data loss here.
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We've recovered the data center. Our
engines are up and running normally steady
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state pressure, and we've just jettisoned
the payload pairing two good break wires,
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00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:07.639
good steady state operating levels on the
Centaur mainze, two good engines on the
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open loop control on Center PU.
This is Vulcan Mission Control at T plus
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five minutes fifty seven seconds. We
just heard flight commentator Rob Gannon confirm the
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successful completion of the early phase of
today's flight and all systems continue to operate
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nominally. Our next event, main
engine cut off will occur in about ten
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minutes while we wait. I'm joined
by Amanda Piquetti e LA, Director of
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Vehicle Upgrades. Amanda, thank you
so much for joining us, and I
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know it's still early, but congratulations. Thank you you as well. This
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is amazing. How did it feel
to watch the Vulcan rocket lift off for
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the first time? Oh, just
absolutely amazing. I didn't expect it to
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be the way it was. It's
just my heart is still pounding. It
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was excellent and just I'm so proud
of all the work that the team did
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to get where we are today.
Absolutely, and developing a new rocket is
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an enormous endeavor of what you were
a huge part again, and we're still
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early, but how do you imagine
the whole Vulcan team is feeling right now?
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I feel like they have to be
the same way, you know,
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smile ear to ear. I know
the team is at all our sites,
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friends and family. They've been supporting
us for many years to get to where
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we are, so I'm sure they
are jumping up and down just like me.
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It's been amazing. How is the
Vulcan rocket going to change the industry?
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Yeah, that's a great question.
So Vulcan is very much based on
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our heritage rockets, the Delta four
and Atlas five vehicles, but we've brought
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in a lot of new innovation and
capabilities that are going to allow us to
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even better support our war fighters,
exploration as well as connecting the world.
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The great thing about Vulcan is it's
highly versatile, meaning we can use that
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vehicle to do anything we want.
Allows for affordability for anybody who needs access
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to space. This is the first
certification flight. What are the next steps
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for Vulcan after this? Yeah,
so with the first flight we are well
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under the way from a certification perspective. We do have a second fight that
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we'll need to do here later this
year. Once that complete get completed,
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we'll have about two months or so
of post flight data testing, and then
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at that point we will be certified
by the US Base Force and we will
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00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:09.240
be ready to fly all their important
payloads for them. Coming up on five
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00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:13.519
hundred seconds into the mission, everything's
looking good. Tinuing to burn Centaur,
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00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:18.639
body rates right as expected, steady
acceleration just under half a g, and
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we are now two hundred and thirty
five miles in altitude, eight hundred and
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00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:26.639
thirty six miles down range, traveling
at eleven thousand, one hundred and fifty
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00:12:26.679 --> 00:12:31.399
miles per hour, continuous nominal performance
from Centaur, and approaching the halfway point
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00:12:31.399 --> 00:12:33.919
of this first burn of Centaur.
Everything looks good, you know. On
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00:12:33.960 --> 00:12:37.679
thousand miles down range, traveling at
eleven thousand, tive hundred miles per hour.
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00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:43.519
This is Vulcan mission control at T
plus ten minutes seven seconds. Our
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00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:46.000
next event, main engine cutoff,
will occur in about five minutes. While
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00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:50.720
we wait, I'm joined by Eric
Manda, part of ULA's mission design team.
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Eric, thanks for joining Usmana,
thanks for having me, of course.
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So we're still pretty early in this
fight today, but can you tell
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00:12:56.279 --> 00:12:58.600
us how the data is looking so
far? Yeah? Absolutely so. I
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just want to say that it was
so I ran outside so I can watch
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this thing lift off, and that
was so cool after so many years of
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development to watch this thing fly,
that was fantastic. Absolutely, I bet.
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Yeah. So what is the data
showing us so far? Yeah?
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Absolutely so. I've had a very
quick look. Obviously we're very early in
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the flight still, but I've taken
a look at the S and B performance
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as well as the boost performance so
far, and everything looks just spot on,
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just perfect. Unfortunately, we've had
a lot of these systems on at
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List and Delta for a long time, and so we've had a lot of
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flight data to anchor our models,
and everything is lining up just like we
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would expect can you talk a little
bit about why we need three burns and
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how we use those three burns to
complete our mission today. So the first
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burn performs our injection into lower thorbit. Unfortunately, if we just continue that
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burn from that point in time,
we wouldn't necessarily be aligned with where we
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need to be in order to get
to the Moon. So what we do
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after we get to lower thorbit is
we shut those engines down, we coast
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around until we get to the right
spot to do that, and then we
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light those engines up again. When
we do that and complete the burn,
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that will allow us to send the
Astrobotic Paragrin Lander onto the Moon. So
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we shut those engines down again and
we are ready to do that and then
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start them one more time in order
to do the third burn, and that's
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just going to take Celestici's Enterprise mission
out to deep space. So let's talk
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a little bit about where these things
happen. We're going to go ahead and
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shut down the main engines on the
Centaur when we get about halfway across the
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Atlantic Ocean, and then we're going
to coast the rest of the way across
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the Atlantic Ocean across Africa, and
go ahead and start the engines up again,
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and we get to Madagascar and that's
where we'll do the second burn,
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and then we coast again until we
get about to pop in New Guiney,
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and when we get about to over
pop in New Guiney, that's where we'll
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go ahead and do that third and
final burn. The second burn will be
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about four minutes long, and then
we'll have another coast for thirty minutes before
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we have a pretty short twenty second
burn for the final burn. Once we've
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done that, then we've got some
engineering demos we're going to do before we
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finally safe the state and shut everything
off. And then at about four days
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later is when the center will leave
the Earth Moon system and beyond find its
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way to the deep space. Depending
on its configuration, the new Vulcans Center
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a launcher can carry a paillot of
up to twenty seven point two tons into
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Loweth orbit, fifteen point three tons
in a geostationary orbit, and twelve point
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one tons in the Luna transfer orbit, making it comparable with SpaceX's Falcon nine
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aboard. The Vulcan's maiden flight was
astrobotics Pereguine Lunar Lander Its mission, however,
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wasn't nearly as successful as the vulcans. The robotic lander is separated from
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the center upper stage without incident,
and its avionics systems powered up and perform
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nominally sending telemetry back to Astrobotics mission
managers through NASA's Deep Space Network. However,
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just hours later, Astrobotics began reporting
technical problems, starting with what appeared
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to be an inability to orient Pereguin's
top mounted solar panels towards the Sun that's
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needed to keep the lunar landers on
board batteries charged up. Pereguine then began
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to drift off course and communications were
temporarily lost. Eventually, engineers were able
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to re establish contact with a one
thousand, two hundred and eighty three kilogram
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Lander and were able to send instructions
to keep it tilted in the right direction
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to keep its solar array pointing towards
the Sun. As mission managers try to
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work out what was going wrong,
they eventually traced the problem to a faulty
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valve in part of the spacecraft's propulsion
system. An image taken by one of
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the onboard cameras showed the multi layer
insulation badly displaced and damaged. That explained
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some of the telemetry which was showing
a critical loss of propellant on board the
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spacecraft. In fact, judging by
the loss rate, Peregune was destined to
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run out of fuel within forty hours. That loss of propellant meant the mission
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was doomed to fail, with a
soft landing on the Moon now out of
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the question. Good news was that
experiments on board the lander were performing well
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and they were sending back good data. Astrobiotics were now simply committed to getting
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the Pereguine as close to the Moon
as possible before it loses its ability to
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maintain its sunpointing position and subsequently loses
all power and enters an uncontrollable tumble.
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Peregon was supposed to enter Luna orbit
and remain there for several weeks before committing
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to a landing in the mid latitude
region of the Moon at a place called
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Sirius Visco Sitatis on February the twenty
third. This space time still to come
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NASAs Parkersloprobe completes its closest encounter with
the Sun and later in the science report,
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meteorologists have now confirmed that twenty twenty
three was the hottest year ever recorded
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on planet Earth. All that and
more still to come on space time messis
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Parker Solar Probe has just undertaking its
eighteenth close approach to the Sun, skimming
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just seven point twenty six million kilometers
above the visible solar surface. The close
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encounter, known as perihelion, began
on Christmas Eve and continued until January the
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teid, with the spacecraft swooping down
at some six hundred and thirty five thousand,
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two hundred and sixty six kilometers per
hour. The close approach distance matched
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the record set by a park It
during its previous close encounter back in September
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last year. It also matched the
speed record set during that encounter. Mission
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managers at the JOHNS. Hopkins Applied
Physics Laboratory in Laurel Maryland's report that the
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spacecraft entered its close encarnter with the
Sun in good health, with all systems
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operating nominally. Following close approach,
the Parker Solar Probe checked back in with
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mission managers sending it state of speak
in turn on January the fifth. The
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spacecraft is now transmitting science data from
the encounter, including the properties, structure,
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and behavior of the solar wind will
give you more details when they come
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to hand. This space time and
time. That'll take a brief look at
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some of the other stories making us
in science this week with a Science report.
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Scientists have now confirmed that twenty twenty
three was indeed the hottest gear ever
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recorded on planet Earth. The findings
by the European Unions Copernicus Climate Change Service,
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which are based on both ground and
satellite readings, show that the planet's
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average temperature in twenty twenty three was
one point four to eight degree solsius warmer
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than the average for the eighties fifty
to nineteen hundred pre industrial period, as
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well as being the planet's hottest recorded
year by a substantial margin. The new
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readings also suggest that last year would
have been the planet's warmest year in at
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least the last one hundred thousand years. The findings are based on global temperature
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records going back to eighteen fifty,
and they're then checked against paleoclimatic data records
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from sources such as tree rings and
ice core air bubbles. Twenty twenty three
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was also the first year in which
every day was more than a degree celsius
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hotter than pre industrial levels. With
two days both in November, being two
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degrees celsius warmer than pre industrial levels. Last year was also zero point one
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seven degrees hotter than twenty sixteen,
which was the previous hottest year on record.
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Meteorologists say that while the arrival of
an El Nina weather pattern has worse
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than the situation, global warming caused
by the use of fossil fuels and other
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greenhouse gases, remains the primary cause
behind the temperature increase and emissions of carbon
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dioxide, the most significant greenhouse gas
remain stubbornly high. For example, last
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year, the concentration of carbon diox
on the atmosphere rose to its highest ever
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recorded level of four hundred and nineteen
parts per million. The Word Meetingological Organization
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says China remains the world's biggest carbon
dioxide polluta, producing almost a third of
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the total global output, amounting to
more than ten point one million tons annually.
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A team of researchers working for a
company that's designed a new cancer testing
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regime claimed that a six specific panel
of just ten proteins can pick up eighteen
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different early stage cancers, representing all
the major organs of the human body.
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A report in the British Medical Journal
claims the team whittled down a list of
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some three thousand blood plasma proteins down
to the finalists of ten, which they
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see are expressed differently among the plasma
of cancer patients in healthy people. The
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authors say they were able to identify
ninety three percent of stage one cancers among
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men in the sample group of four
hundred and forty and eighty four percent of
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women. An attached to editorial to
the study says that while there are still
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several problems in the tests that need
to be addressed before it can be deployed
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to the general population, this new
method may be a good means of improving
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current issues related to sex specific detection
tests. A new study may have finally
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solved the mystery disappearance of the largest
of the great apes from Asia. A
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report in the journal Nature focused on
the extinction of the largest ever primate,
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Gacantipithecus Blackie, which went extinct at
a time when other Asian great apes were
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thriving. The new evidence, uncovered
by a team of Australian, American,
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and Chinese scientists, found that the
largest primate to ever walk on the Earth
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went extinct between two hundred and ninety
five thousand and two hundred and fifteen thousand
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years ago, simply because they were
unable to adapt their food preferences and behaviors,
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and because they were vulnerable to the
changing climates which eventually sealed their fate.
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Measurements of the fossilized teeth have allowed
paleontologists to estimate Joacandipithecus's height at around
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three meters it's nine point eight feet
with a mass of around two hundred to
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three hundred kilograms. Back in the
nineteen fifties, bigfoot enthusiasts began to hypothesize
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that stories of Yeti, Yowie's and
Sasquatch were actually descriptions of encarnters with relic
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populations of Dagandipithecus that had somehow survived
in isolation from the changing world around them.
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But the most obvious problem with the
Gigantipithecus Bigfoot connection theory is the simple
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fact that no scientific evidence supporting Bigfoot
has ever been found. A recent letter
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signed by more than one hundred distinguished
scientists has sought to discredit integrated information theory,
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labeling the leading hypothesis of consciousness as
nothing more than sew the science.
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However, it's two men them from
a strange Skeptics points out, no hypothesis
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of consciousness is currently empirically testable,
so strictly speaking, no such idea is
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scientific. It is a great debate
and actually has the sounds with esoteric,
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but it actually has broader implications.
Now I have the prefaces we're saying,
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I'm not a neurologist, I'm not
practicing philosopher, fuly amateur, and I'm
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not necessarily an expert on consciousness.
But looking at this, there is a
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debate right now about different ways of
measuring and explaining what consciousness is. Generally
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speaking to the view is that consciousness
is how you are aware of the world
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around you, of your role in
it, and what's happening to you,
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et cetera. Now, consciousness,
this idea has bigger implications beyond just the
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esoteric one of how the brain works. It has implications for legal issues and
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all sorts of things you imagine,
like fatal consciousness of the fetus of the
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data before born. Does that have
consciousness? That has an implication for abortions
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in medical treatments of various sorts.
Do animals have consciousness? And that has
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the implication for everything from laboratory testing
to actually eating and using animals to plants
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out consciousness. That's been suggested too, that yeah, should you be coming
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down plants? Do they screen when
you sort of pull them out of the
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ground, letters screams when you cut
it up? That's right? Do they?
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Oh? Yes, they do?
Yes, But whether that's consciousness or
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just the chemical reaction and automatic chemical
reaction, okay, even as far as
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suggesting that the universe have consciousness,
So I'm not quite sure how we going
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to I'm through that. But basically
consciousness comes down to two different aspects,
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as a physical one, which can
be measured by neurological measurements et cetera,
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sticking things to your head and measuring
electrical impulses that sort of stuff, which
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is pretty straightforward. And then there's
a subjective measurements of consciousness, which is
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how people suggest what they have seen, you know, for the witnessing of
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activities, et cetera. Now it's
a very broad area, isn't. Are
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we talking about simple chemical reactions or
are we talking about I guess sentience because
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the line is very blurred between them. That's right, and that's a bit
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of a contentious issue. It is
as much a philosophical issue as it is
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a scientific one. But anyway,
the argument right now is about one particular
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theory of assessing and explaining consciousness,
and it's called integrated information theory, which
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is pretty dull and broad. It
which is suggesting that these subjective and objective
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measurements are measuring the same thing,
that they are the same and they're just
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different ways of looking at it.
I mean, the skeptics would know that
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there is a difference between reality and
how people perceive it. That we know
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that witness testimony can be very dodgy, especially over a period of time.
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We know that things like neurological testing
through things like polygraph machines, which is
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the live detectors, are almost useless
and are certainly not recognized in most courts
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because they're only measuring stress rather than
truth, and they're not necessarily stress but
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not necessarily great indicator of truth.
So anyway, there's this debate about integrated
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information theory with a letter that was
written by one hundred and twenty odd scientists
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recently presumably practicing neurologists or philosophers,
who were saying it's sudo science, and
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the response from at least one person
who has studied it says, you can't
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say, you can't highlight that one
as being suito science because all the theories
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is their science, which is that's
not on the people who are promoting consciousness
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theory wanted to hear. But there's
a range of different theories. There's the
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one called global neuronal workspace theory,
and there's another one called the higher order
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thought theory, which is higher order
thought, which is hot the hot theory.
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And there's basically what you called subse
fusion agreements, which is the way
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that people identify problems and that inferences
about consciousness as the experiment or does the
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experiment to play a role, and
all sorts of different things. Anyway,
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it is a complex area, but
it does have implications in the in the
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real world. As we've said,
is AI a form of consciousness? Well,
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that's exactly right. That's where it
comes to. That's where you get
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into this big areas and suddenly we
get back to the three laws of robotic
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which is obviously an AI issues.
As I guess, the one of three
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laws that robots have to obey,
you robots have to protect you, and
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robots can't do anything that will hurt
you. I usually power down when they
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come up, and so you know, very seriously progected. I mean imagine
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coma pace. How conscious are they
and what do you do? Stem cell
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research? Is that a consciousness issue? Organoid testing as they call it,
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which is often just fits to the
brain put in the patridish you use that
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it or something and that Yes,
yes, I mean frog legs, et
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cetera. Are they consciousness? They
get an experiment with pig brains recently whether
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they were able to get reactions which
rendered the test questionable, and in fact
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it's been now banned because there was
an issue of that whether or not those
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brains had become conscious and had achieved
sentience. Again, yes it is.
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00:28:33.480 --> 00:28:36.680
I mean you could take it down
to the extreme and say everything is conscious
367
00:28:36.799 --> 00:28:41.720
and therefore can you do anything to
anything without impinging on it consciousness rights.
368
00:28:41.880 --> 00:28:45.559
That's when you get into very interesting
philosophical areas and where sort of stuff will
369
00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:48.200
help you. It doesn't go anywhere, is it applicable? Is it useful?
370
00:28:48.359 --> 00:28:52.319
And Pera's not And anyway, these
people are arguing that the methods that
371
00:28:52.359 --> 00:28:55.920
are being suggested the series of consciousness, what it is, how it can
372
00:28:55.960 --> 00:29:00.799
be assessed, et cetera. Pseudoscience
quite possibly will never understand consciousness. We
373
00:29:00.839 --> 00:29:03.519
can might get a duplicate it with
AI, et cetera. The consciousness will
374
00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:08.960
also involve sort of ethical decision making, all sorts of appreciations of other people's
375
00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:12.559
right, civil rights, all that
sort of aspects should be coming into consciousness
376
00:29:12.599 --> 00:29:15.799
your own right primary amongst that.
Can an AI do that? I don't
377
00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:19.279
know? Can you program in ethics, free laws of robotics, et cetera.
378
00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:23.000
And therefore this argument, which is
sounds bit esoteric and certainly complex,
379
00:29:23.240 --> 00:29:45.559
that's timendum from Australian skeptics, And
that's the show for now. Space Time
380
00:29:45.640 --> 00:29:49.680
is available every Monday, Wednesday and
Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher,
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dot com, SoundCloud YouTube, your
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with Stuart Gary dot com. Space
Time's also broadcast through the National Science Foundation,
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com for full details, and if
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out our blog, where you'll find
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and things on the whereby find interesting
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with Steward Gary dot tumbler dot com. That's all one word, and that's
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Tumbler without the E. You can
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Time with Stewart Gary. You've been
listening to space Time with Steward Gary.
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This has been another quality podcast production
from bytes dot com.
1
00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:05.120
This is Spacetime Series twenty seven,
Episode seven, for broadcast on the fifteenth
2
00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:10.919
of January twenty twenty four. Coming
up on Spacetime, NASA delays a man
3
00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:16.359
returned to the lunar's surface until twenty
twenty six. A successful maiden flight for
4
00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:22.519
United launches new Vulcan Center rocket,
and NASA's Parker's Solar Probe completes its eighteenth
5
00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:29.480
close encounter with the Sun. All
that and more coming up on Spacetime Welcome
6
00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:51.719
to Space Time with Stuart Gary.
NASA has scrubbed this year's planned Artemis two
7
00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:56.920
man mission around the Moon. The
agency says the flight, the first to
8
00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:00.520
tech humans to the Moon in over
fifty years, will be delayed until at
9
00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:04.120
least September next year, in the
process, pushing the return of people to
10
00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:10.159
the lunar surface aboard the Atomis three
mission back from December twenty twenty five until
11
00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:15.040
at least September twenty twenty six.
NASA has put the delays down to a
12
00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:19.840
range of safety concerns with the Lockheed
Martin built Orion spacecraft, as well as
13
00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:25.840
development issues with the new Moon suits
and continuing delays with SpaceX's Starship Mega rocket,
14
00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:30.200
which will carry crews from the Orion
spacecraft orbiting around the Moon, down
15
00:01:30.239 --> 00:01:34.200
to the lunar surface and back up
again. The twenty five day unmanned Artemis
16
00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:38.680
one mission to the Moon back in
November twenty twenty two appeed to go smoothly
17
00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:45.439
with no serious issues disclosed at the
time. However, it's now been revealed
18
00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:51.200
that the Artemis one Orion capsule suffered
more extensive charring damage to its ablative heat
19
00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:56.560
shield during amos free re entry and
was initially expected, and tests on another
20
00:01:56.599 --> 00:02:01.120
Orion spacecraft have now uncovered a designed
fall with a life support systems electronics,
21
00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:05.439
as well as a separate issue which
is popped up with one of the battery
22
00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:09.439
systems. There have also been two
fouled launch attempts from its Texas star base
23
00:02:09.560 --> 00:02:15.960
by SpaceX's one to twenty one meter
Toll Starship, which are posing serious concerns.
24
00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:21.759
Both launch failures saw the Starship super
Heavy explode in the skies over the
25
00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:25.159
Gulf of Mexico. A third test
flight is now planned for next month,
26
00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:30.719
but the longer it takes to get
Starship into Earth orbit, the longer NASA
27
00:02:30.759 --> 00:02:34.919
will have to wait before it can
launch its Atomus three mission, and there
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00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:39.319
are other complications with Starship as well. SpaceX points out that Starship will need
29
00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:44.280
to have its fuel tank refilled once
it's in orbit around the Earth before it
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00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:47.800
heads off to the Moon. An
estimated ten fuel transfers will be needed to
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00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:52.840
do the job, and so SpaceX
are planning to build an orbital fuel depot.
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00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:57.319
And there have also been ongoing issues
with the manufacture of the new EVA
33
00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:01.319
spaces for you from the Lunar's surface, which developed by Houston's Axiom Space.
34
00:03:02.039 --> 00:03:07.280
The Apollo eraist space suits, which
we used during the late sixties and seventies
35
00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.840
and are still the basis for the
EVA spacesuits used by NASA today, aren't
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00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:15.800
really suitable for use on the lunar's
surface. That's because they become damaged by
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00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:21.280
the ultra fine but extremely sharp lunar
dust or regulars, which is the Apollo
38
00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:25.639
astronauts found out became a real problem. Not only did the dust get everywhere
39
00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:30.520
on the suit, clogging equipment and
causing radiators to overheat, but it was
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00:03:30.599 --> 00:03:34.439
so sharp that it quite literally wore
a hole in the knee on the outer
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00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:40.719
spacesuit garment. During one geological EVA
NASA Administrator Bill Nilsen says the delays will
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00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:46.439
give the atemist teams more time to
work through the challenges. The ten day
43
00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:51.199
Artemis two mission, which includes three
Americans and one Canadian astronaut, will be
44
00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:55.439
a full scale, dressed rehearsal for
Atomis three. It'll but the Earth twice
45
00:03:55.479 --> 00:04:00.360
in order to get enough speed for
translunar injection, taking humans further from the
46
00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:05.039
Earth than ever before into an extended
lunar orbit that will result in a free
47
00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:11.560
return trajectory back to Earth if successful. That'll be followed by the Artemis three
48
00:04:11.639 --> 00:04:15.000
mission, which will land astronauts on
the Moon's south Pole, which Nilsen describes
49
00:04:15.040 --> 00:04:19.439
as a different moon from the Sea
of Tranquility, where Apollo eleven astronauts nearl
50
00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:25.720
Armstrong and buzz Aldron landed in nineteen
sixty nine. The Sea of Tranquility was
51
00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:30.160
relatively flat terrain. The lunar south
pole, on the other hand, is
52
00:04:30.279 --> 00:04:33.160
pot marked with dick craters, and
because of the angle of the sunlight,
53
00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:39.519
most of those craters are in total
darkness. NASA says that delays shouldn't effect
54
00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:42.920
the following Artemis four mission, which
will be the first to use the new
55
00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:46.600
Lunar Gateway Orbital space station. It
currently remains on track for launch. In
56
00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:51.439
twenty twenty eight, during NASA as
Apollo era, twelve Americans walked on the
57
00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:57.160
lunar surface, in the process,
winning the space race and demonstrating to Moscow
58
00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:02.560
that Washington held the ultimate Cold War. Today, the competition isn't the Soviet
59
00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:08.000
Union, but rather China were expecting
to have taker knots walking on the Moon
60
00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:15.000
by twenty thirty this space time still
to come. The United Launch Alliances new
61
00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:20.480
Vulcan Centaur rocket undertakes a successful maiden
flight, and NASA's Parker Solar Probe completes
62
00:05:20.519 --> 00:05:26.160
its closest encounters so far with the
Sun. All that and more still to
63
00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:47.399
come on space time. The United
Launch Alliances new Vulcan Centaur rocket has undertaken
64
00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:54.079
a highly successful maiden flight. The
new sixty two meter tall, two stage
65
00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:59.279
Vulcan Centaur was initially designed to meet
the design to phase out the current Russian
66
00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:03.120
Idea eight engines used on the Atlas
five, which are no longer being supported
67
00:06:03.160 --> 00:06:09.160
by Moscow following the Western boycott of
Russia in response to the Kremlins invasion of
68
00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:14.560
Ukraine. It also provided the United
Launch Alliance with an opportunity to replace the
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00:06:14.600 --> 00:06:19.519
heritage Delta four rocket with a new
single launch system. The Vulcan's twin Blue
70
00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:26.519
Origin sourced B four liquid methane and
liquid oxygen powered core stage replaces the Keerrot
71
00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:30.639
scene in liquid oxygen fueled I one
eighties used on the Atlas five, as
72
00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:34.000
well as the liquid hydrogen on liquid
oxygen core stage engines used on the Delta
73
00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:39.079
four, and the Vulcan core stage
is designed to be fitted with up to
74
00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:44.279
six strap on solid rocket boosters,
depending on payload and target orbit. On
75
00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:47.319
top of that, there's a new
Centaur five upper stage. It replaces the
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00:06:47.319 --> 00:06:53.720
earlier design common Centaur and Centaur three
variants which we used on the Atlas five.
77
00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:59.240
The mission called CIRT one blasted off
from Space Launch Complex forty one at
78
00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:03.040
the Cape Canaverals Space for Space in
Florida. Status JECK Go Vulcan Go Centaur
79
00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:15.519
GO parents ten nine eight seven six
five four three. We have ignition and
80
00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:21.519
lift off of the first United Launch
Alliance Vulcan rocket, launching a new era
81
00:07:21.639 --> 00:07:27.000
in space flight to the Moon and
beyond. Just laborating two good SRBs hitting
82
00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.759
peak pressure on the SRBs. Everything
looking good. You got pitching our programs
83
00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:34.319
in coming into normal rates for that
event. We have good hydraulic pressure on
84
00:07:34.439 --> 00:07:38.800
both engines, good chamber pressure on
both engines. Everything looking good. Coming
85
00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:43.079
up on sixty seconds into the flight. Everything looking good, two good engines,
86
00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:46.720
two good SRBs. Body rates look
good, nice and smooth, and
87
00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:48.920
we've hit our first throttle point on
the B fours. Everything looking good and
88
00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:53.120
we have passed through MAK one.
We are now supersonic, coming up on
89
00:07:53.240 --> 00:07:57.079
max Q at max dynamic pressure.
Everything looking good. We're rolling off on
90
00:07:57.120 --> 00:08:01.160
the SRBs and we have cut off
on the SRBs, coming up on jettison
91
00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:05.959
and approximately thirty seconds fifteen seconds that's
their p jet. P fours continue operate
92
00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.879
nominally, seeing expected PU activity and
the boost remains and we have separation of
93
00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:13.680
both SRBs. Everything looking good.
The E fours continue to operate normally.
94
00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:18.360
We up on two minutes into the
mission. We are now seventeen miles in
95
00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:22.120
altitude. We just heard confirmation of
solid rocket booster jettison. We have about
96
00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:26.040
three minutes until we reach our next
mission event. Booster engine cut off and
97
00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:31.240
we see booster PU correcting towards the
nomenal IMR. Everything looking good. Both
98
00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:35.240
engines continue to pre normally, and
we now weigh probably half of our lift
99
00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:39.279
off weight. Everything looking good,
and we fired the power valve, activating
100
00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:43.399
the reaction control system on the upper
stage. Pressures are rising as expected.
101
00:08:43.639 --> 00:08:48.519
P four continues to operate normally.
Vehicles continue to apply down the center of
102
00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:52.799
the range track. Everything looking good. Thirty three miles in altitude, fifty
103
00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:56.080
two miles down range, traveling at
four thousand miles per hour. Then you
104
00:08:56.120 --> 00:09:01.039
see excellent performance out of the b
E four's chamber pressure, Nice and smooth.
105
00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:05.399
Vehicles settle accelerating a little over two
g's at this time, good body
106
00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:11.480
rates, nice and smooth operation of
the booster. Forty seven miles in altitude,
107
00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:16.039
ninety five miles down range at fifty
five hundred miles per hour. Engines
108
00:09:16.039 --> 00:09:20.399
continue to burn normally. Everything looking
good, and the vehicle now weighs one
109
00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:24.320
quarter of us slipped off weight as
they passed through the carbon line. Next
110
00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:28.360
mark Wet. We're looking for a
boot space chill down on the centaur.
111
00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:33.240
Main engines. Boost remains continue to
operate normally, and we've been on boot
112
00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:35.840
space chill. Housing tents are dropping
as expected. Coming up to the end
113
00:09:35.879 --> 00:09:39.720
of the boost phase. Prost me
ten seconds to BICO throttle down. In
114
00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:45.080
preparation for BICO. We've completed boot
space chill down and we have cut off.
115
00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:50.159
Coming up on Fulcan Center separation.
We have Vulcan Center separation. Everything
116
00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:54.720
looking good coming up on the Centaur
phase and experiencing a good data loss here.
117
00:09:54.960 --> 00:10:00.360
We've recovered the data center. Our
engines are up and running normally steady
118
00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:03.879
state pressure, and we've just jettisoned
the payload pairing two good break wires,
119
00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:07.639
good steady state operating levels on the
Centaur mainze, two good engines on the
120
00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:13.080
open loop control on Center PU.
This is Vulcan Mission Control at T plus
121
00:10:13.240 --> 00:10:18.080
five minutes fifty seven seconds. We
just heard flight commentator Rob Gannon confirm the
122
00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:22.960
successful completion of the early phase of
today's flight and all systems continue to operate
123
00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:26.480
nominally. Our next event, main
engine cut off will occur in about ten
124
00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:30.919
minutes while we wait. I'm joined
by Amanda Piquetti e LA, Director of
125
00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:35.120
Vehicle Upgrades. Amanda, thank you
so much for joining us, and I
126
00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:37.759
know it's still early, but congratulations. Thank you you as well. This
127
00:10:37.879 --> 00:10:41.720
is amazing. How did it feel
to watch the Vulcan rocket lift off for
128
00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:46.720
the first time? Oh, just
absolutely amazing. I didn't expect it to
129
00:10:46.759 --> 00:10:48.519
be the way it was. It's
just my heart is still pounding. It
130
00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:52.480
was excellent and just I'm so proud
of all the work that the team did
131
00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:56.320
to get where we are today.
Absolutely, and developing a new rocket is
132
00:10:56.399 --> 00:11:00.480
an enormous endeavor of what you were
a huge part again, and we're still
133
00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:03.559
early, but how do you imagine
the whole Vulcan team is feeling right now?
134
00:11:03.799 --> 00:11:05.600
I feel like they have to be
the same way, you know,
135
00:11:05.679 --> 00:11:09.159
smile ear to ear. I know
the team is at all our sites,
136
00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:11.879
friends and family. They've been supporting
us for many years to get to where
137
00:11:11.879 --> 00:11:15.480
we are, so I'm sure they
are jumping up and down just like me.
138
00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:18.720
It's been amazing. How is the
Vulcan rocket going to change the industry?
139
00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.559
Yeah, that's a great question.
So Vulcan is very much based on
140
00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:26.519
our heritage rockets, the Delta four
and Atlas five vehicles, but we've brought
141
00:11:26.519 --> 00:11:28.600
in a lot of new innovation and
capabilities that are going to allow us to
142
00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:33.440
even better support our war fighters,
exploration as well as connecting the world.
143
00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:37.720
The great thing about Vulcan is it's
highly versatile, meaning we can use that
144
00:11:37.799 --> 00:11:43.360
vehicle to do anything we want.
Allows for affordability for anybody who needs access
145
00:11:43.399 --> 00:11:46.840
to space. This is the first
certification flight. What are the next steps
146
00:11:46.840 --> 00:11:50.399
for Vulcan after this? Yeah,
so with the first flight we are well
147
00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:54.000
under the way from a certification perspective. We do have a second fight that
148
00:11:54.039 --> 00:11:58.679
we'll need to do here later this
year. Once that complete get completed,
149
00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:01.720
we'll have about two months or so
of post flight data testing, and then
150
00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:05.840
at that point we will be certified
by the US Base Force and we will
151
00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:09.240
be ready to fly all their important
payloads for them. Coming up on five
152
00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:13.519
hundred seconds into the mission, everything's
looking good. Tinuing to burn Centaur,
153
00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:18.639
body rates right as expected, steady
acceleration just under half a g, and
154
00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:22.480
we are now two hundred and thirty
five miles in altitude, eight hundred and
155
00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:26.639
thirty six miles down range, traveling
at eleven thousand, one hundred and fifty
156
00:12:26.679 --> 00:12:31.399
miles per hour, continuous nominal performance
from Centaur, and approaching the halfway point
157
00:12:31.399 --> 00:12:33.919
of this first burn of Centaur.
Everything looks good, you know. On
158
00:12:33.960 --> 00:12:37.679
thousand miles down range, traveling at
eleven thousand, tive hundred miles per hour.
159
00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:43.519
This is Vulcan mission control at T
plus ten minutes seven seconds. Our
160
00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:46.000
next event, main engine cutoff,
will occur in about five minutes. While
161
00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:50.720
we wait, I'm joined by Eric
Manda, part of ULA's mission design team.
162
00:12:50.840 --> 00:12:52.559
Eric, thanks for joining Usmana,
thanks for having me, of course.
163
00:12:52.600 --> 00:12:56.240
So we're still pretty early in this
fight today, but can you tell
164
00:12:56.279 --> 00:12:58.600
us how the data is looking so
far? Yeah? Absolutely so. I
165
00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:01.960
just want to say that it was
so I ran outside so I can watch
166
00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:05.120
this thing lift off, and that
was so cool after so many years of
167
00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:09.039
development to watch this thing fly,
that was fantastic. Absolutely, I bet.
168
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Yeah. So what is the data
showing us so far? Yeah?
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Absolutely so. I've had a very
quick look. Obviously we're very early in
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the flight still, but I've taken
a look at the S and B performance
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as well as the boost performance so
far, and everything looks just spot on,
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just perfect. Unfortunately, we've had
a lot of these systems on at
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List and Delta for a long time, and so we've had a lot of
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flight data to anchor our models,
and everything is lining up just like we
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would expect can you talk a little
bit about why we need three burns and
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how we use those three burns to
complete our mission today. So the first
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burn performs our injection into lower thorbit. Unfortunately, if we just continue that
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burn from that point in time,
we wouldn't necessarily be aligned with where we
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need to be in order to get
to the Moon. So what we do
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after we get to lower thorbit is
we shut those engines down, we coast
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around until we get to the right
spot to do that, and then we
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light those engines up again. When
we do that and complete the burn,
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that will allow us to send the
Astrobotic Paragrin Lander onto the Moon. So
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we shut those engines down again and
we are ready to do that and then
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start them one more time in order
to do the third burn, and that's
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just going to take Celestici's Enterprise mission
out to deep space. So let's talk
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a little bit about where these things
happen. We're going to go ahead and
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shut down the main engines on the
Centaur when we get about halfway across the
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Atlantic Ocean, and then we're going
to coast the rest of the way across
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the Atlantic Ocean across Africa, and
go ahead and start the engines up again,
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and we get to Madagascar and that's
where we'll do the second burn,
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and then we coast again until we
get about to pop in New Guiney,
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and when we get about to over
pop in New Guiney, that's where we'll
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go ahead and do that third and
final burn. The second burn will be
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about four minutes long, and then
we'll have another coast for thirty minutes before
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we have a pretty short twenty second
burn for the final burn. Once we've
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done that, then we've got some
engineering demos we're going to do before we
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finally safe the state and shut everything
off. And then at about four days
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later is when the center will leave
the Earth Moon system and beyond find its
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way to the deep space. Depending
on its configuration, the new Vulcans Center
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a launcher can carry a paillot of
up to twenty seven point two tons into
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Loweth orbit, fifteen point three tons
in a geostationary orbit, and twelve point
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one tons in the Luna transfer orbit, making it comparable with SpaceX's Falcon nine
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aboard. The Vulcan's maiden flight was
astrobotics Pereguine Lunar Lander Its mission, however,
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wasn't nearly as successful as the vulcans. The robotic lander is separated from
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the center upper stage without incident,
and its avionics systems powered up and perform
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nominally sending telemetry back to Astrobotics mission
managers through NASA's Deep Space Network. However,
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just hours later, Astrobotics began reporting
technical problems, starting with what appeared
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to be an inability to orient Pereguin's
top mounted solar panels towards the Sun that's
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needed to keep the lunar landers on
board batteries charged up. Pereguine then began
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to drift off course and communications were
temporarily lost. Eventually, engineers were able
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to re establish contact with a one
thousand, two hundred and eighty three kilogram
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Lander and were able to send instructions
to keep it tilted in the right direction
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to keep its solar array pointing towards
the Sun. As mission managers try to
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work out what was going wrong,
they eventually traced the problem to a faulty
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valve in part of the spacecraft's propulsion
system. An image taken by one of
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the onboard cameras showed the multi layer
insulation badly displaced and damaged. That explained
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some of the telemetry which was showing
a critical loss of propellant on board the
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spacecraft. In fact, judging by
the loss rate, Peregune was destined to
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run out of fuel within forty hours. That loss of propellant meant the mission
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was doomed to fail, with a
soft landing on the Moon now out of
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the question. Good news was that
experiments on board the lander were performing well
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and they were sending back good data. Astrobiotics were now simply committed to getting
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the Pereguine as close to the Moon
as possible before it loses its ability to
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maintain its sunpointing position and subsequently loses
all power and enters an uncontrollable tumble.
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Peregon was supposed to enter Luna orbit
and remain there for several weeks before committing
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to a landing in the mid latitude
region of the Moon at a place called
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Sirius Visco Sitatis on February the twenty
third. This space time still to come
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NASAs Parkersloprobe completes its closest encounter with
the Sun and later in the science report,
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meteorologists have now confirmed that twenty twenty
three was the hottest year ever recorded
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on planet Earth. All that and
more still to come on space time messis
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Parker Solar Probe has just undertaking its
eighteenth close approach to the Sun, skimming
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just seven point twenty six million kilometers
above the visible solar surface. The close
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encounter, known as perihelion, began
on Christmas Eve and continued until January the
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teid, with the spacecraft swooping down
at some six hundred and thirty five thousand,
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two hundred and sixty six kilometers per
hour. The close approach distance matched
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the record set by a park It
during its previous close encounter back in September
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last year. It also matched the
speed record set during that encounter. Mission
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managers at the JOHNS. Hopkins Applied
Physics Laboratory in Laurel Maryland's report that the
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spacecraft entered its close encarnter with the
Sun in good health, with all systems
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operating nominally. Following close approach,
the Parker Solar Probe checked back in with
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mission managers sending it state of speak
in turn on January the fifth. The
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spacecraft is now transmitting science data from
the encounter, including the properties, structure,
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and behavior of the solar wind will
give you more details when they come
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to hand. This space time and
time. That'll take a brief look at
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some of the other stories making us
in science this week with a Science report.
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Scientists have now confirmed that twenty twenty
three was indeed the hottest gear ever
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recorded on planet Earth. The findings
by the European Unions Copernicus Climate Change Service,
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which are based on both ground and
satellite readings, show that the planet's
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average temperature in twenty twenty three was
one point four to eight degree solsius warmer
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than the average for the eighties fifty
to nineteen hundred pre industrial period, as
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well as being the planet's hottest recorded
year by a substantial margin. The new
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readings also suggest that last year would
have been the planet's warmest year in at
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least the last one hundred thousand years. The findings are based on global temperature
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records going back to eighteen fifty,
and they're then checked against paleoclimatic data records
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from sources such as tree rings and
ice core air bubbles. Twenty twenty three
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was also the first year in which
every day was more than a degree celsius
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hotter than pre industrial levels. With
two days both in November, being two
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degrees celsius warmer than pre industrial levels. Last year was also zero point one
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seven degrees hotter than twenty sixteen,
which was the previous hottest year on record.
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Meteorologists say that while the arrival of
an El Nina weather pattern has worse
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than the situation, global warming caused
by the use of fossil fuels and other
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greenhouse gases, remains the primary cause
behind the temperature increase and emissions of carbon
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dioxide, the most significant greenhouse gas
remain stubbornly high. For example, last
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year, the concentration of carbon diox
on the atmosphere rose to its highest ever
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recorded level of four hundred and nineteen
parts per million. The Word Meetingological Organization
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says China remains the world's biggest carbon
dioxide polluta, producing almost a third of
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the total global output, amounting to
more than ten point one million tons annually.
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A team of researchers working for a
company that's designed a new cancer testing
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regime claimed that a six specific panel
of just ten proteins can pick up eighteen
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different early stage cancers, representing all
the major organs of the human body.
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A report in the British Medical Journal
claims the team whittled down a list of
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some three thousand blood plasma proteins down
to the finalists of ten, which they
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see are expressed differently among the plasma
of cancer patients in healthy people. The
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authors say they were able to identify
ninety three percent of stage one cancers among
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men in the sample group of four
hundred and forty and eighty four percent of
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women. An attached to editorial to
the study says that while there are still
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several problems in the tests that need
to be addressed before it can be deployed
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to the general population, this new
method may be a good means of improving
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current issues related to sex specific detection
tests. A new study may have finally
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solved the mystery disappearance of the largest
of the great apes from Asia. A
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report in the journal Nature focused on
the extinction of the largest ever primate,
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Gacantipithecus Blackie, which went extinct at
a time when other Asian great apes were
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thriving. The new evidence, uncovered
by a team of Australian, American,
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and Chinese scientists, found that the
largest primate to ever walk on the Earth
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went extinct between two hundred and ninety
five thousand and two hundred and fifteen thousand
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years ago, simply because they were
unable to adapt their food preferences and behaviors,
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and because they were vulnerable to the
changing climates which eventually sealed their fate.
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Measurements of the fossilized teeth have allowed
paleontologists to estimate Joacandipithecus's height at around
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three meters it's nine point eight feet
with a mass of around two hundred to
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three hundred kilograms. Back in the
nineteen fifties, bigfoot enthusiasts began to hypothesize
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that stories of Yeti, Yowie's and
Sasquatch were actually descriptions of encarnters with relic
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populations of Dagandipithecus that had somehow survived
in isolation from the changing world around them.
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But the most obvious problem with the
Gigantipithecus Bigfoot connection theory is the simple
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fact that no scientific evidence supporting Bigfoot
has ever been found. A recent letter
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signed by more than one hundred distinguished
scientists has sought to discredit integrated information theory,
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labeling the leading hypothesis of consciousness as
nothing more than sew the science.
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However, it's two men them from
a strange Skeptics points out, no hypothesis
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of consciousness is currently empirically testable,
so strictly speaking, no such idea is
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scientific. It is a great debate
and actually has the sounds with esoteric,
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but it actually has broader implications.
Now I have the prefaces we're saying,
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I'm not a neurologist, I'm not
practicing philosopher, fuly amateur, and I'm
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not necessarily an expert on consciousness.
But looking at this, there is a
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debate right now about different ways of
measuring and explaining what consciousness is. Generally
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speaking to the view is that consciousness
is how you are aware of the world
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around you, of your role in
it, and what's happening to you,
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et cetera. Now, consciousness,
this idea has bigger implications beyond just the
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esoteric one of how the brain works. It has implications for legal issues and
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all sorts of things you imagine,
like fatal consciousness of the fetus of the
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data before born. Does that have
consciousness? That has an implication for abortions
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in medical treatments of various sorts.
Do animals have consciousness? And that has
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the implication for everything from laboratory testing
to actually eating and using animals to plants
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out consciousness. That's been suggested too, that yeah, should you be coming
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down plants? Do they screen when
you sort of pull them out of the
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ground, letters screams when you cut
it up? That's right? Do they?
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Oh? Yes, they do?
Yes, But whether that's consciousness or
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just the chemical reaction and automatic chemical
reaction, okay, even as far as
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suggesting that the universe have consciousness,
So I'm not quite sure how we going
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to I'm through that. But basically
consciousness comes down to two different aspects,
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as a physical one, which can
be measured by neurological measurements et cetera,
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sticking things to your head and measuring
electrical impulses that sort of stuff, which
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is pretty straightforward. And then there's
a subjective measurements of consciousness, which is
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how people suggest what they have seen, you know, for the witnessing of
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activities, et cetera. Now it's
a very broad area, isn't. Are
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we talking about simple chemical reactions or
are we talking about I guess sentience because
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the line is very blurred between them. That's right, and that's a bit
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of a contentious issue. It is
as much a philosophical issue as it is
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a scientific one. But anyway,
the argument right now is about one particular
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theory of assessing and explaining consciousness,
and it's called integrated information theory, which
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is pretty dull and broad. It
which is suggesting that these subjective and objective
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measurements are measuring the same thing,
that they are the same and they're just
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different ways of looking at it.
I mean, the skeptics would know that
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there is a difference between reality and
how people perceive it. That we know
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that witness testimony can be very dodgy, especially over a period of time.
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We know that things like neurological testing
through things like polygraph machines, which is
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the live detectors, are almost useless
and are certainly not recognized in most courts
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because they're only measuring stress rather than
truth, and they're not necessarily stress but
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not necessarily great indicator of truth.
So anyway, there's this debate about integrated
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information theory with a letter that was
written by one hundred and twenty odd scientists
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recently presumably practicing neurologists or philosophers,
who were saying it's sudo science, and
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the response from at least one person
who has studied it says, you can't
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say, you can't highlight that one
as being suito science because all the theories
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is their science, which is that's
not on the people who are promoting consciousness
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theory wanted to hear. But there's
a range of different theories. There's the
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one called global neuronal workspace theory,
and there's another one called the higher order
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thought theory, which is higher order
thought, which is hot the hot theory.
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And there's basically what you called subse
fusion agreements, which is the way
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that people identify problems and that inferences
about consciousness as the experiment or does the
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experiment to play a role, and
all sorts of different things. Anyway,
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it is a complex area, but
it does have implications in the in the
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real world. As we've said,
is AI a form of consciousness? Well,
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that's exactly right. That's where it
comes to. That's where you get
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into this big areas and suddenly we
get back to the three laws of robotic
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which is obviously an AI issues.
As I guess, the one of three
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laws that robots have to obey,
you robots have to protect you, and
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robots can't do anything that will hurt
you. I usually power down when they
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come up, and so you know, very seriously progected. I mean imagine
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coma pace. How conscious are they
and what do you do? Stem cell
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research? Is that a consciousness issue? Organoid testing as they call it,
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which is often just fits to the
brain put in the patridish you use that
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it or something and that Yes,
yes, I mean frog legs, et
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cetera. Are they consciousness? They
get an experiment with pig brains recently whether
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they were able to get reactions which
rendered the test questionable, and in fact
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it's been now banned because there was
an issue of that whether or not those
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brains had become conscious and had achieved
sentience. Again, yes it is.
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I mean you could take it down
to the extreme and say everything is conscious
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and therefore can you do anything to
anything without impinging on it consciousness rights.
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That's when you get into very interesting
philosophical areas and where sort of stuff will
369
00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:48.200
help you. It doesn't go anywhere, is it applicable? Is it useful?
370
00:28:48.359 --> 00:28:52.319
And Pera's not And anyway, these
people are arguing that the methods that
371
00:28:52.359 --> 00:28:55.920
are being suggested the series of consciousness, what it is, how it can
372
00:28:55.960 --> 00:29:00.799
be assessed, et cetera. Pseudoscience
quite possibly will never understand consciousness. We
373
00:29:00.839 --> 00:29:03.519
can might get a duplicate it with
AI, et cetera. The consciousness will
374
00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:08.960
also involve sort of ethical decision making, all sorts of appreciations of other people's
375
00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:12.559
right, civil rights, all that
sort of aspects should be coming into consciousness
376
00:29:12.599 --> 00:29:15.799
your own right primary amongst that.
Can an AI do that? I don't
377
00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:19.279
know? Can you program in ethics, free laws of robotics, et cetera.
378
00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:23.000
And therefore this argument, which is
sounds bit esoteric and certainly complex,
379
00:29:23.240 --> 00:29:45.559
that's timendum from Australian skeptics, And
that's the show for now. Space Time
380
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