December 18, 2024 • 15 mins
Australia is heading to the moon for the first time. The Australian Space Agency has unveiled a prototype of a rover bound for the lunar surface on a NASA mission this decade. ‘Roo-ver,’ as it’s been nicknamed by the public, will explore the moon to help experts learn more about establishing a “sustainable human presence" there. The project is being developed by the ELO2 consortium — a group of companies and universities selected by the Australian Space Agency. Mechanical Engineer Chloe Chang has been working with Lunar Outpost Oceania, the technical lead of the ELO2 consortium, and she joins us in the deep dive to explain the announcement.
Hosts: Emma Gillespie and Zara Seidler
Producer: Orla Maher
Guest: Chloe Chang, Lunar Outpost Oceania
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh,
now it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,
the nineteenth of December. I'm emma, I'm Zara. Australia is
heading to the Moon. But if you're thinking of astronauts.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
In space suits, think again.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
After an eighteen month design process, the Australian Space Agency
has unveiled the prototype for the country's first lunar rover,
or RUVERA, as it's been nicknamed by the Australian public.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I don't think we should be trusting the Australian public
with any naming at this rate.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I thought we had low.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
We let ourselves down time and time again. But this
robot RUVERA is completing a very real mission, and that
is to the surface of the Moon on a NASA
mission later this decade. The federal government has announced forty
two million dollars to fund the construction of the rover,
and it'll be developed by a group of companies and
(01:03):
universities selected by the Australian Space Agency.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Experts want to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So what does that mean and why?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
To understand more, I reached out to someone who is
much more qualified than I am to talk about space exploration,
mechanical engineer Chloe Chang. Despite literally just graduating from monash Uni,
where she led a rover program, Chloe has been working
with Lunar Outpost Oceania. They are the technical lead of
the ELO two consortium. That's that group selected by the
(01:38):
Space Agency to develop this rover and she joins US now.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Chloe Chang, Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
We are so excited to be talking to you today
about this announcement, but I wanted to take it back
to basics. First of all, why is Australia sending a
rover to the Moon?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Very good question. Australia is sending a over to the
Moon as part of NASA's Artemis program to support humanity's
return to the lunar surface. The robo will contribute to
the international efforts to explore the Moon, extracting resources like
regulars and see if there's water, there's oxygen in there,
and this will be essentral for future missions and also
(02:18):
sustaining a human presence on the Moon.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You've mentioned a return to the Moon obviously, you know
back in the Apollo missions several decades ago. The Moon
was a huge focus when it came to space exploration.
But why has it returned to focus.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
It's returned to focus because I think there's a lot
long term that we can gain from space. Space has
infinite resources and power and is estimated to be a
one point eight trillion industry in the future. So it's
really important that Australia cements their space in the space
industry and be a part of that global market.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Let's talk about the prototype unveiled this week, RuvA.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
What can you tell me about it?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
What is it and what will this piece of robotics
I guess actually be able to do. Hi. Sorry, I'm
just gonna pop in here because Chloe mentions this word
regolith a few times coming up, and I was too
embarrassed to ask her what it means. So in case
you also don't know what it means, I just wanted
to let you know.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Regolith it's basically moon soil.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
It's a term used to describe the loose rocks, dust,
other materials found on the lunar surface.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Back to the interview.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
So this is a small microwave sized rover. It's about
twenty kilograms. It can traverse uneven terrain about one hundred
meters a day, and it's looking for interesting samples, collecting
lunar regoliths, looking for water, looking for oxygen. So that's
basically the basics of the mission. But our consortium elo
(03:58):
TO this year has developed four prototypes which have been
designed to test critical design aspects.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So I imagine the challenge is developing something that brings
all of those elements together. Because, of course, this rover
not only has to get to the Moon, which I
imagine is a mission in and of itself, but once
it's there, gather that information and then bring it home.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
It's not coming home. It's staying on the Moon forever, forever. Well,
it probably will be recycled for maybe a later mission,
but it is going to the surface and it will
stay there.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Wow, a permanent rover on the Moon. So what are
the findings from this rover going to be used for?
Speaker 1 (04:44):
How long will it take?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Sort Of, once we get the rover on the lunar
surface it starts doing its thing, when can we expect
some discoveries?
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Tricky question. We don't know a lot about the Moon
as it is. We have the Lunar Conaissance orbit are
that NASA put up and that's our source of truth
and our most up to date data of the Moon,
but actual knowledge of the composition of the soil, especially
the poles. So this rover's going to the south pole.
(05:14):
There's not a lot of information around that, and they're
suspected to be water in the poles of the Moon,
which would be very important to sustaining a human presence
on the Moon and sustaining astronauts up there, so that
we're not bringing our own water on our and oxygen
to the Moon. So in terms of what we will discover,
I guess you know that the whole point of this
mission is to send a rover up there, have a
(05:35):
look around and see what we can find.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, I'm really interested in this idea of establishing a
human presence on the Moon. We've heard from the Space
Agency this week that that is a major focus of
the international space community over the coming decades. But what
does that actually mean. What would a presence, a sustainable
human presence on the Moon look like.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Yeah, a sustainable human presence on the Moon involves establishing habitats.
Maybe they're made out of the lunar regolith itself. Maybe
we have robotic you know, huge robotic infrastructure, huge like
civil three D printers that take regulith and create our
own lunar bricks, because lunar regolith is able to shield
(06:18):
radiation and the thermal environment. So that's kind of one example.
But also, you know, infrastructure that allows astronauts to live
and work and carry out their scientific experience for extended
periods of time without constant resupply from Earth. So just
making sure we have good power systems, good communication networks,
(06:38):
life support systems, and of course food, water and oxygen.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
So we're talking about a presence for scientific discovery purposes,
not necessarily an ambition to kind of establish human colonies
as an alternative to life on Earth.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I think the world wants to definitely head in that
direction of having a colony on the Moon, having a
colony on Mars. But in the coming decades, I think
it is purely research, understanding more about the environment, creating
a base on the Moon to then hop to Mars,
if that makes sense. It's about creating those highways to space,
(07:17):
to the Moon and then to Mars. I think in
the next few decades.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
We'll be back with more of today's deep dive right
after this.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Here.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
We have obviously heard a lot about Mars more recently
than we've seen conversation about the Moon. I suppose you know,
Mars rovers constant conversations around you know, is their life
on Mars?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Could we be all headed for Mars one day soon?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Why is it important also to investigate lunar exploration to support.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
That Mars is really really far away? So being able
to get to the Moon, refeel, restock, and then head
over to Mars is one of those are key reasons.
And I think as well, the Moon is much closer.
You know, we're able to explore how technologies work, how
humans live in space on the Moon, which will be
(08:14):
relevant environments to Mars, not exact. So I guess it's
just a step closer to being able to create a
presence on Mars.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Why send a rover?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Obviously, space exploration in the twentieth century looked like men
in white suits going up into space.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Now it looks very different.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Have we moved away from human exploration in space?
Speaker 4 (08:38):
I think we haven't moved away from human exploration. I think,
in fact, we're really coming back to that. You know,
NASA announcing therefore astronauts to return to the Moon as
part of the Artemis missions, which we're supporting. But why
send a rover first is because it's a lot safer,
a lot more cost effective, a lot more technically feasible.
You know, with a rover, you don't have to feed it,
(09:00):
you don't have to give it water, you don't need
to make sure it's inside a environment that has, you know,
the right pressure and the right oxygen. It also can
survive in much more extreme temperatures. You know, I don't
know about you, but I definitely wouldn't want to be
in negative one hundred degrees or one hundred degree heat.
So yeah, it's much safer, and we're able to achieve
(09:20):
the mission objectives with just a robot. So if we
can do what we need with just robotics, then it's
not risking human lives.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
From the kind of construction and development side of things
with getting this project off the ground. How do you
test a rover in those conditions?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
How do you.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Mimic an environment that is so desolate, a hostile that
doesn't really exist here on Earth to ensure that it's
going to safely make that journey and get there in
one piece and do its job.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Yeah, so it's a very rigorous systems engineering approach. So,
you know, one of the concerns is thermal environment gets
very hot and it gets very cold. Another concern is vacuum.
We are limited to certain materials that we can use
so that the rover doesn't outgas. We obviously are very
(10:12):
concerned about you know, going off in our rocket, the
shock and the vibrations that all experience, so it has
to be structurally sound. Of course, it needs to also
be considered from a radiation perspective, making sure we're shielding
it correctly and our electronics can work the way it's intended.
So yeah, there are a lot of aspects to the
environmental considerations that we test, and I think we you know,
(10:36):
start off with subsystem level testing and we'll test them
in sort of those unique environments that I mentioned, and
then we'll start you know combining like maybe we do
thermal and shock gun vibe at the same time.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
And what's the timeline for the rover's first mission? When
are the experts with the consortium hoping to get this
up and running later.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
This decade, But still I guess unconfus sorry, I cannot
say space secrets.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Is it surprising to you that this is the first
time Australia will send a lunar rover into space.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
I never really thought that Australia would be a part
of something as historic as this, so it's definitely new
and very exciting, and I think when I did first
hear about it, it was a shock. But now it's
it's you know, I've been working on this for a
year and a half. It's my it's my every day.
But you know, this project allows Australia to showcase it's
(11:33):
engineering and technical innovation on an international stage and I'm
so honored to be a part of that.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Well, Chloe, you are recently graduated from university yourself. You
are incredibly young and successful in your field. I'd love
to know a little bit more about what your day
to day involvement looks like with the project.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah. I actually just graduated a couple of weeks ago,
so I'm very excited to work full time on this.
But my day to day changes, you know, day to
day because every day is a new challenge. It's always uh,
you know, how do we do this? We brainstorm, we
talk about risk, then we build, design, prototype, test, and
(12:17):
sort of validate and inform our next design. And there
are lots of different parts of the rover and lots
of different aspects of the mission that are beyond technical,
like operational. As I mentioned, sometimes you can design something
super well, but if it's not designed to be used
by humans or to complete the objectives of the mission,
you know, can dramatically affect your success. So yeah, I
(12:40):
would say it's very exhilarating. Definitely been challenged, learned a lot,
and increase my technical skills. So yeah, it's been it's
been a blast.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
What are you most excited for about this whole project?
Considering you know, the ruver as we're calling it, from
start to finish, what are your big hopes for this one?
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I think being in the mission control center and watching
it land on the Moon safely and drive across the surface,
I think we'd just break my mind. It's just a
culmination of a lot of people's hard work and a
lot of years, and we've got a lot of work
ahead of us. But I think that's what I'm most
(13:23):
excited for, and it will be an incredible moment of
pride for this nation. Yeah, and I also just want
to say, like, this isn't a once in a lifetime opportunity.
It's a once in a century moment. And I hope
that it won't be a once in a century moment
to be able to explore space, and that the generations
that come before us will be more involved. And I
think you know, to talk to younger viewers if they're listening.
(13:48):
You know, it's likely that the first person on Mars
is currently sitting in a classroom somewhere in the world.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
And the first person on Mas is most likely a woman.
So you know, you you have the opportunity to further
human explorations. So now is the time we have this
mission and we're standing on the cost of something really extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Maybe the first person on Mars, he's a woman, and
maybe her name is Chloe Jank Chloe, thank you so
much for your time today. That was really, really fascinating.
We so appreciate you breaking it down for us, and
hopefully I'll chat to you in a few years time
from that mission control room.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Let's go, but so lovely to meet you m on.
Have a lovely day.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
That's all we've got time for on today's podcast. Thank
you for joining us for that exploration of outer space.
We'll be back again this afternoon with the headlines you
need to know, but until then, have a wonderful day.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Adunda
Bungelung Calcoton woman from Gadigol Country.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respec to
all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
both past and present.
Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh,
now it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,
the nineteenth of December. I'm emma, I'm Zara. Australia is
heading to the Moon. But if you're thinking of astronauts.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
In space suits, think again.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
After an eighteen month design process, the Australian Space Agency
has unveiled the prototype for the country's first lunar rover,
or RUVERA, as it's been nicknamed by the Australian public.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I don't think we should be trusting the Australian public
with any naming at this rate.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I thought we had low.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
We let ourselves down time and time again. But this
robot RUVERA is completing a very real mission, and that
is to the surface of the Moon on a NASA
mission later this decade. The federal government has announced forty
two million dollars to fund the construction of the rover,
and it'll be developed by a group of companies and
(01:03):
universities selected by the Australian Space Agency.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Experts want to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So what does that mean and why?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
To understand more, I reached out to someone who is
much more qualified than I am to talk about space exploration,
mechanical engineer Chloe Chang. Despite literally just graduating from monash Uni,
where she led a rover program, Chloe has been working
with Lunar Outpost Oceania. They are the technical lead of
the ELO two consortium. That's that group selected by the
(01:38):
Space Agency to develop this rover and she joins US now.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Chloe Chang, Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
We are so excited to be talking to you today
about this announcement, but I wanted to take it back
to basics. First of all, why is Australia sending a
rover to the Moon?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Very good question. Australia is sending a over to the
Moon as part of NASA's Artemis program to support humanity's
return to the lunar surface. The robo will contribute to
the international efforts to explore the Moon, extracting resources like
regulars and see if there's water, there's oxygen in there,
and this will be essentral for future missions and also
(02:18):
sustaining a human presence on the Moon.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You've mentioned a return to the Moon obviously, you know
back in the Apollo missions several decades ago. The Moon
was a huge focus when it came to space exploration.
But why has it returned to focus.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
It's returned to focus because I think there's a lot
long term that we can gain from space. Space has
infinite resources and power and is estimated to be a
one point eight trillion industry in the future. So it's
really important that Australia cements their space in the space
industry and be a part of that global market.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Let's talk about the prototype unveiled this week, RuvA.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
What can you tell me about it?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
What is it and what will this piece of robotics
I guess actually be able to do. Hi. Sorry, I'm
just gonna pop in here because Chloe mentions this word
regolith a few times coming up, and I was too
embarrassed to ask her what it means. So in case
you also don't know what it means, I just wanted
to let you know.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Regolith it's basically moon soil.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
It's a term used to describe the loose rocks, dust,
other materials found on the lunar surface.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Back to the interview.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
So this is a small microwave sized rover. It's about
twenty kilograms. It can traverse uneven terrain about one hundred
meters a day, and it's looking for interesting samples, collecting
lunar regoliths, looking for water, looking for oxygen. So that's
basically the basics of the mission. But our consortium elo
(03:58):
TO this year has developed four prototypes which have been
designed to test critical design aspects.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So I imagine the challenge is developing something that brings
all of those elements together. Because, of course, this rover
not only has to get to the Moon, which I
imagine is a mission in and of itself, but once
it's there, gather that information and then bring it home.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
It's not coming home. It's staying on the Moon forever, forever. Well,
it probably will be recycled for maybe a later mission,
but it is going to the surface and it will
stay there.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Wow, a permanent rover on the Moon. So what are
the findings from this rover going to be used for?
Speaker 1 (04:44):
How long will it take?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Sort Of, once we get the rover on the lunar
surface it starts doing its thing, when can we expect
some discoveries?
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Tricky question. We don't know a lot about the Moon
as it is. We have the Lunar Conaissance orbit are
that NASA put up and that's our source of truth
and our most up to date data of the Moon,
but actual knowledge of the composition of the soil, especially
the poles. So this rover's going to the south pole.
(05:14):
There's not a lot of information around that, and they're
suspected to be water in the poles of the Moon,
which would be very important to sustaining a human presence
on the Moon and sustaining astronauts up there, so that
we're not bringing our own water on our and oxygen
to the Moon. So in terms of what we will discover,
I guess you know that the whole point of this
mission is to send a rover up there, have a
(05:35):
look around and see what we can find.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, I'm really interested in this idea of establishing a
human presence on the Moon. We've heard from the Space
Agency this week that that is a major focus of
the international space community over the coming decades. But what
does that actually mean. What would a presence, a sustainable
human presence on the Moon look like.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Yeah, a sustainable human presence on the Moon involves establishing habitats.
Maybe they're made out of the lunar regolith itself. Maybe
we have robotic you know, huge robotic infrastructure, huge like
civil three D printers that take regulith and create our
own lunar bricks, because lunar regolith is able to shield
(06:18):
radiation and the thermal environment. So that's kind of one example.
But also, you know, infrastructure that allows astronauts to live
and work and carry out their scientific experience for extended
periods of time without constant resupply from Earth. So just
making sure we have good power systems, good communication networks,
(06:38):
life support systems, and of course food, water and oxygen.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
So we're talking about a presence for scientific discovery purposes,
not necessarily an ambition to kind of establish human colonies
as an alternative to life on Earth.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I think the world wants to definitely head in that
direction of having a colony on the Moon, having a
colony on Mars. But in the coming decades, I think
it is purely research, understanding more about the environment, creating
a base on the Moon to then hop to Mars,
if that makes sense. It's about creating those highways to space,
(07:17):
to the Moon and then to Mars. I think in
the next few decades.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
We'll be back with more of today's deep dive right
after this.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Here.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
We have obviously heard a lot about Mars more recently
than we've seen conversation about the Moon. I suppose you know,
Mars rovers constant conversations around you know, is their life
on Mars?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Could we be all headed for Mars one day soon?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Why is it important also to investigate lunar exploration to support.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
That Mars is really really far away? So being able
to get to the Moon, refeel, restock, and then head
over to Mars is one of those are key reasons.
And I think as well, the Moon is much closer.
You know, we're able to explore how technologies work, how
humans live in space on the Moon, which will be
(08:14):
relevant environments to Mars, not exact. So I guess it's
just a step closer to being able to create a
presence on Mars.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Why send a rover?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Obviously, space exploration in the twentieth century looked like men
in white suits going up into space.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Now it looks very different.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Have we moved away from human exploration in space?
Speaker 4 (08:38):
I think we haven't moved away from human exploration. I think,
in fact, we're really coming back to that. You know,
NASA announcing therefore astronauts to return to the Moon as
part of the Artemis missions, which we're supporting. But why
send a rover first is because it's a lot safer,
a lot more cost effective, a lot more technically feasible.
You know, with a rover, you don't have to feed it,
(09:00):
you don't have to give it water, you don't need
to make sure it's inside a environment that has, you know,
the right pressure and the right oxygen. It also can
survive in much more extreme temperatures. You know, I don't
know about you, but I definitely wouldn't want to be
in negative one hundred degrees or one hundred degree heat.
So yeah, it's much safer, and we're able to achieve
(09:20):
the mission objectives with just a robot. So if we
can do what we need with just robotics, then it's
not risking human lives.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
From the kind of construction and development side of things
with getting this project off the ground. How do you
test a rover in those conditions?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
How do you.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Mimic an environment that is so desolate, a hostile that
doesn't really exist here on Earth to ensure that it's
going to safely make that journey and get there in
one piece and do its job.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Yeah, so it's a very rigorous systems engineering approach. So,
you know, one of the concerns is thermal environment gets
very hot and it gets very cold. Another concern is vacuum.
We are limited to certain materials that we can use
so that the rover doesn't outgas. We obviously are very
(10:12):
concerned about you know, going off in our rocket, the
shock and the vibrations that all experience, so it has
to be structurally sound. Of course, it needs to also
be considered from a radiation perspective, making sure we're shielding
it correctly and our electronics can work the way it's intended.
So yeah, there are a lot of aspects to the
environmental considerations that we test, and I think we you know,
(10:36):
start off with subsystem level testing and we'll test them
in sort of those unique environments that I mentioned, and
then we'll start you know combining like maybe we do
thermal and shock gun vibe at the same time.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
And what's the timeline for the rover's first mission? When
are the experts with the consortium hoping to get this
up and running later.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
This decade, But still I guess unconfus sorry, I cannot
say space secrets.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Is it surprising to you that this is the first
time Australia will send a lunar rover into space.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
I never really thought that Australia would be a part
of something as historic as this, so it's definitely new
and very exciting, and I think when I did first
hear about it, it was a shock. But now it's
it's you know, I've been working on this for a
year and a half. It's my it's my every day.
But you know, this project allows Australia to showcase it's
(11:33):
engineering and technical innovation on an international stage and I'm
so honored to be a part of that.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Well, Chloe, you are recently graduated from university yourself. You
are incredibly young and successful in your field. I'd love
to know a little bit more about what your day
to day involvement looks like with the project.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah. I actually just graduated a couple of weeks ago,
so I'm very excited to work full time on this.
But my day to day changes, you know, day to
day because every day is a new challenge. It's always uh,
you know, how do we do this? We brainstorm, we
talk about risk, then we build, design, prototype, test, and
(12:17):
sort of validate and inform our next design. And there
are lots of different parts of the rover and lots
of different aspects of the mission that are beyond technical,
like operational. As I mentioned, sometimes you can design something
super well, but if it's not designed to be used
by humans or to complete the objectives of the mission,
you know, can dramatically affect your success. So yeah, I
(12:40):
would say it's very exhilarating. Definitely been challenged, learned a lot,
and increase my technical skills. So yeah, it's been it's
been a blast.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
What are you most excited for about this whole project?
Considering you know, the ruver as we're calling it, from
start to finish, what are your big hopes for this one?
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I think being in the mission control center and watching
it land on the Moon safely and drive across the surface,
I think we'd just break my mind. It's just a
culmination of a lot of people's hard work and a
lot of years, and we've got a lot of work
ahead of us. But I think that's what I'm most
(13:23):
excited for, and it will be an incredible moment of
pride for this nation. Yeah, and I also just want
to say, like, this isn't a once in a lifetime opportunity.
It's a once in a century moment. And I hope
that it won't be a once in a century moment
to be able to explore space, and that the generations
that come before us will be more involved. And I
think you know, to talk to younger viewers if they're listening.
(13:48):
You know, it's likely that the first person on Mars
is currently sitting in a classroom somewhere in the world.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
And the first person on Mas is most likely a woman.
So you know, you you have the opportunity to further
human explorations. So now is the time we have this
mission and we're standing on the cost of something really extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Maybe the first person on Mars, he's a woman, and
maybe her name is Chloe Jank Chloe, thank you so
much for your time today. That was really, really fascinating.
We so appreciate you breaking it down for us, and
hopefully I'll chat to you in a few years time
from that mission control room.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Let's go, but so lovely to meet you m on.
Have a lovely day.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
That's all we've got time for on today's podcast. Thank
you for joining us for that exploration of outer space.
We'll be back again this afternoon with the headlines you
need to know, but until then, have a wonderful day.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Adunda
Bungelung Calcoton woman from Gadigol Country.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respec to
all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
both past and present.
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