October 28, 2025 • 33 mins
(00:00:00) Lunar Relics and Interstellar Insights: Discoveries from the Moon and Comet 3I ATLAS
(00:00:46) Relics of the outer solar system discovered on the Moon
(00:03:30) Insights from interstellar comet 3I ATLAS
(00:07:31) SpaceX's Starship Mega rocket test flight
(00:23:54) The Science report
(00:31:46) Episode Wrap
In this episode of SpaceTime, we explore remarkable discoveries that provide new insights into our solar system and beyond.
Relics of the Outer Solar System Found on the Moon
A groundbreaking study reveals that meteorites found on the Moon originated from the outer solar system. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have identified olivine-bearing clasts from lunar regolith collected by the Chang'e 6 mission. These relics, believed to be carbonaceous chondrites, offer critical information about the formation and evolution of planets. The findings suggest that the Moon serves as a pristine archive for meteorites, with implications for understanding the origins of lunar water and organic materials.
Interstellar Comet 3I ATLAS: Insights into Alien Solar Systems
The interstellar comet 3I ATLAS is revealing fascinating details about the composition of other solar systems. New observations indicate that 3I ATLAS has been active longer than expected, releasing various molecules as it travels through our solar system. This segment discusses how the comet's behavior challenges existing assumptions about comet activity and provides clues about the materials present in distant star systems.
SpaceX's Starship Mega Rocket Test Flight
SpaceX has successfully completed its 11th test flight of the Starship Mega rocket, demonstrating significant advancements in its design and capabilities. The mission involved various maneuvers, including hot staging and payload deployment, as well as tests of the spacecraft's reentry and landing procedures. This episode highlights the importance of these tests for future missions to the Moon and Mars, as SpaceX continues to refine the Starship for interplanetary travel.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
https://www.pnas.org/
Astrophysical Journal Letters
https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8205
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
Relics of the Outer Solar System Found on the Moon
Interstellar Comet 3I ATLAS: Insights into Alien Solar Systems
SpaceX's Starship Mega Rocket Test Flight
(00:00:46) Relics of the outer solar system discovered on the Moon
(00:03:30) Insights from interstellar comet 3I ATLAS
(00:07:31) SpaceX's Starship Mega rocket test flight
(00:23:54) The Science report
(00:31:46) Episode Wrap
In this episode of SpaceTime, we explore remarkable discoveries that provide new insights into our solar system and beyond.
Relics of the Outer Solar System Found on the Moon
A groundbreaking study reveals that meteorites found on the Moon originated from the outer solar system. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have identified olivine-bearing clasts from lunar regolith collected by the Chang'e 6 mission. These relics, believed to be carbonaceous chondrites, offer critical information about the formation and evolution of planets. The findings suggest that the Moon serves as a pristine archive for meteorites, with implications for understanding the origins of lunar water and organic materials.
Interstellar Comet 3I ATLAS: Insights into Alien Solar Systems
The interstellar comet 3I ATLAS is revealing fascinating details about the composition of other solar systems. New observations indicate that 3I ATLAS has been active longer than expected, releasing various molecules as it travels through our solar system. This segment discusses how the comet's behavior challenges existing assumptions about comet activity and provides clues about the materials present in distant star systems.
SpaceX's Starship Mega Rocket Test Flight
SpaceX has successfully completed its 11th test flight of the Starship Mega rocket, demonstrating significant advancements in its design and capabilities. The mission involved various maneuvers, including hot staging and payload deployment, as well as tests of the spacecraft's reentry and landing procedures. This episode highlights the importance of these tests for future missions to the Moon and Mars, as SpaceX continues to refine the Starship for interplanetary travel.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
https://www.pnas.org/
Astrophysical Journal Letters
https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8205
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
Relics of the Outer Solar System Found on the Moon
Interstellar Comet 3I ATLAS: Insights into Alien Solar Systems
SpaceX's Starship Mega Rocket Test Flight
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Spacetime Series twenty eight, episode one hundred and
twenty seven, for broadcast on the twenty ninth of October
twenty twenty five. Coming up on space Time, Relics of
the Outer Solar System discovered on the Moon, What Comet
THREEI Atlas is telling astronomers about other Solar systems, and
another successful test flight space Exis Starship Mega Rocket. All
(00:23):
that and more coming up on space Time.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
A new study has confirmed that some meteorites found on
the Moon originated in the dark outer reaches of the
Solar System. Media Rites are critical objects for studying the
formation and evolution of planets. However, most are not preserved
very well on Earth because of atmospheric in geological contamination.
The problems even more severe of fragile carbonaceous of vunotype chondrites,
(01:09):
which count for less than one per cent of all
meteorites found on Earth. In contrast, the Moon serves as
a natural archive for meteorites, benefiting from its lack of
atmosphere and limited geological activity. Now, researchers from the Chinese
Academy of Sciences have identified seven olivine bearing clasts from
two grams of lunar regular collected by the Chungi six
(01:31):
Sample Return Mission. The findings that reported in the proceedings
the National Academy of Sciences shows that trace elements and
oxygen isotope compositions of olivine clasts in the samples confirms
that they are relics of carbonaceous or vanotype chondrites. They
formed through the rapid cooling induced crystallization of melt droplets
and were generated when these chondrites melted as they hit
(01:53):
the lunar surface. The parent bodies of these types of
chondrites were originally formed in the arter Soul Solar System
before eventually migrating to the inner Solar System during the
formation of the terrestrial planet's mercury venus Earth and Mars.
A preminary statistical analysis of meteoritic materials on the Moon
shows that the proportion of these specific types of chondrites
(02:15):
is significantly higher on the lunar surface than in Earth's
meteorite collection. That indicates that the combination of carbonaceous of
Uno type chondrias to the Earth Moon system has been
severely underestimated. Furthermore, the authors found that the samples who
we are rich in water or organic materials, meaning the
discovery also has important implications for understanding the origins of
(02:37):
water on the lunar surface. The authors believe that previously
detected water signatures in lunar samples were likely the result
of the impact of such meteorites. So this study not
only reshaped sciences understanding of how materials migrate through the
Solar System, but it also provides new directions for future
research into the origins and distribution of luke no water
(03:00):
resources this space time still to come. What the interstellar
comet three ee Atlas is telling astronomers about other Solar systems,
and another successful test flight for SpaceX's megastarship. All that
and more still to come on space time new images
(03:34):
of interstellar comet three eye Atlas telling astronomers how this
alien object is evolving as travels through our Solar system
and how other distant solar systems might be very different
from our own. The new findings reported in the Astrophysical
Journal Letters, suggest that three Iye Atlas may have been
active for far longer than scientists expected, thanks to clues
(03:56):
hidden in its comet like tail. The new observations, based
on data from NASA's tests Transiting Exoplanet Survey satellite, and
they provide more information about an object which will only
be visible in the sky for a few more months
before it zooms beyond even the most powerful telescopes reach.
The studies. Lead author aDNA Feinstein from Michigan State University says,
(04:18):
each of the three interstellar objects that have been detected
in our solar system so far one I a mau Mauer,
two I Boris EV, and three I Atlas seem to
be quite unique, and the additional data coming from three
I Outlass is telling astronomers a story about a solar
system very different from the one we live in. In
our system, comets that approach the Sun released dust and gases,
(04:41):
mostly water, from their surfaces and from inside as temperatures increase,
but the images of three I Outlass show activity much
further away from the Sun than expected, and that means
it's likely releasing other molecules like carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
Feinstein says that gives astronomers idea about what comments and
(05:01):
asteroids might be made of in systems beyond our own Sun.
It's always been assumed that other star systems are different
from ours, but now this clear definitive evidence of just
how different they might be. Astronomers expect for our outlets
to be visible for several more months, but they're also
sifting through archival data to see if there are any
images of the object from before it was identified. Capturing
(05:25):
as many observations as possible is essential to better understand
how these objects turn on as they approach the Sun.
These interstellar objects have likely not been worn significantly in millions,
if not billions of years, and any opportunity to see
how they responded to that early heating would be of
extreme interest. This report from nass A TV.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Right now, a fleet of NASA spacecraft are turning their
attention to an unusual object speeding through our Solar system.
NASA funded telescopes have their eyes on the sky all
the time and first spotted this object back in July.
It's a comet now named three I Atlas, and it's
only the third object ever confirmed to have come from
(06:11):
interstellar space. In case you are wondering, this comet does
not pose any threat to Earth, but it does give
scientists a rare chance to study something from beyond our
Solar system. So what are we doing. In addition to
ground based studies, NASA's space telescopes like Hubble, Web and
Spherx have made unique observations and scientists are pouring over
(06:36):
the data. Soon, though, the comet's path will take it
past even more of our robotic explorers. Next, it's heading
towards Mars and spacecraft in orbit and on the surface,
we'll try to catch a glimpse. After that, it's on
toward Jupiter. What will our spacecraft see We'll soon find out.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
This space time still to come. SpaceX has completed a
spectacularly successful eleventh test flight of its massive Staship Mega rocket.
Later in the science report, new satellite images show that
Iran is rebuilding its span nuclear weapons infrastructure. All that
and more still to come on space time. SpaceX has
(07:33):
completed a spectacularly successful eleventh test flight of its massive
stash It Mega rocket, The world's largest and most powerful spacecraft,
blasted off into the early evening skies from the company's
star based launch complex at Bocachica on the Texas Gulf
Coast to ten nine eight seven, six, five four three
(07:57):
two one.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
We have liftoff. Go Super Heavy Go Starship. Thanks for
all the historic flights bad one.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Eagles catch you down rage ster Raptor chamber pressure nomenal,
Who's sternership, nominal power, intelemetry. All right, we are about
forty five seconds into flight. We're still getting the rattle
here at star Factory. We are seeing thirty three out
of thirty three Raptor engines lit on Super Heavy as
it arcs across the Gulf, coming up next on max Q.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
MAKS cut.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
So at this point we've passed through that period of
maximum aerodynamic pressure. The next thing we're looking forward to
is going to be hot staging. At that point, we're
going to see all but three of those Raptor engines
on super Heavy shut down our version of MIKO most
engines cut off instead of main engine. And then after
that we're going to release the clamps that are currently
(08:55):
holding Starship to that hot stage adapter. It's then going
to ignite you. It's six Raptor engines to push it
away from super Heavy and then start making its flight
uphill the vehicles.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Super Heavy booster stage separated just as planned two and
a half minutes after launch, undertaking a successful boostback burn
before making yourself splashed down just as planned. In the
waters of the Gulf of America. During its descent, SpaceX
lit up thirteen raptor engines at the start of the
landing burn before switching to five to steer the booster
instead of the three used in earlier tests. This setup
(09:30):
was designed to give the super Heavy more control, serve
as a backup if any engine shut down.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
See the engines throttling down.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Strodan got off ship ignition stage separation, U specburn startup.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
All right, successful hot staging maneuver. So we've got twelve
to thirteen engines lit back up on boosters, so it's
doing its boost back real excitingly though. We've got six
out of six raptors lit on ship there, so it's
now going to continue to make it's a scent into
outer space. Meanwhile, this boostback is happening. We're using those
thirteen engines, so everything well, twelve out of the thirteen
(10:05):
and then we go down to three and then we're
going to shut down for the end of boost back.
That's sending Super Heavy back towards its planned splash down
zone in the Gulf.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
The Booster then finished its descent using three central engines,
offering briefly above the water for undertaking itself splash down.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
All right, So for Booster, this is one of the
main things we're trying to get is going to be
this landing burn.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
That's Starship is on nominal trajectory.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
Looking good on our trajectory, looking good on everything.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
As we approach that landing, just like tower catches, we
will be doing a thirteen engine landing burn to slow down.
This time it will be in a V three configuration,
and as we're starting to get into the denser part
of the atmosphere, the Booster is using four hypersonic grid
fins to guide itself through atmospheric entry towards its landing site.
Booster landing burns shut down. We saw a thirteen to
(10:54):
five to three B three demonstration and into the water
we go.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Meanwhile, all the starshape up. The stage successfully continued its
journey on its suborbal dejectory into space.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
The next major milestone we're going to be looking for
is CICCO. That's our second stage engine cut off that
should be coming right at about eight minutes and fifty
eight seconds into flight. Just a reminder, this is putting
us into a suborbital trajectory. So we're intentionally just going
slow enough that we're not going to achieve full orbit.
This puts us on a course where those engines shut
(11:28):
off and no matter what, we're coming back internal guidance
in the Indian Ocean terminal guidance. So we should start
seeing the shutdowns come up. In just a couple of seconds.
Our vacks have shut off. Three more to go.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Ship engine cut.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
Off, all ship raptors have shed insertion. You just heard
nominal orbital insertion. So we are on the path that
we wanted to be. So we've got a ship back
in space.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Flight eleven followed a similar mission profile to the previous
test flight back in August. Starshape ran through series of tests,
deployed a satellite, simulated payloads, and undertook a restart of
one of it's vacuum wrapped a rocket engines.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
We are currently venting down the nose cone, essentially the
payload area of starship as we get ready to open
up this payload door. We were able to do this
successfully for the very first time on our last flight
on flight ten. All right, so payload doors open. Next
up going to be to start deploying these Starlink simulators
They are roughly the same size as the V three
(12:29):
Starlink satellites. That starship's going to be carrying. Our next
iteration of starships also going to have a more powerful
pez it's going to deploy these head a little bit
faster speed.
Speaker 7 (12:40):
There we go, all right, first one going out.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
All right, first one's deployed, Getting ready for the second one.
Here we do a little reset back to the center position.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
Yeah, it takes about a minute for each one.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Looks real smooth too. They made a couple of tweaks
of those rails. There goes another one. We're going to
relight one of those center engines. This will be the
third time that we've tried this. We did it successfully
back on flight ten, and then we did it for
the very first time back on flight six. This is
not a deorbit burn. This is demonstrating essentially all of
(13:14):
the systems you would need to do a deorbit burn.
So that's obviously your raptor engine, and then also your
your header tanks, your smaller tanks in the nose cone
where we have liquid oxygen, liquid methane, and a smaller,
more easily pressurized container which we can use for on
orbit burns. And we're also going to tap into those
and we do our landing burn. So this will be
(13:37):
a critical capability. Once we go to full orbital missions,
you'll have to do a deorbit burn to break out
of orbit send it back down to Earth.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
Here we go, all right, there was that raptor RELIGHTE
looks like Engine three full duration. As Dan mentioned, it's
a third attempt, and we've just did it three times
in a row.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Very hard.
Speaker 7 (13:59):
No second orbital insertion.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
The mission involves more in orbit and re entry and
maneuvering operations in order to test different scenarios. The flight
also tested several upgrades aimed at helping Starship eventually fly
back to its loan side. As part of those tests,
SpaceX Engine's also removed some of the spacecraft's hate shield
tiles in order to see how unprotected areas would hold
(14:22):
up when re entering its atmosphere.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Starship is approaching entry interface. Ship is starting entry, good
autitude and.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
See plasma starting to build on the windward side of
the rocket there. And you know, reentry is a critical
phase of flight and we need information on how the
ship systems perform. Reentry is also extremely demanding portion of
flight because we need the ship to scrub off all
of the energy we used to launch the rocket. So
remember the thirty three engines plus the six engines on
(14:48):
ship that we used to get up into space. We
now are using aerobraking essentially to scrub off all that energy.
Speaker 7 (14:54):
We have some tiles on.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
The leeward side of the flaps here, and we have
some different mechanisms stud out basically to see if these
towels will hang on.
Speaker 8 (15:02):
Re Entry is typically a portion of flight where we
don't have communications with spacecraft because it's re entering at
or around orbital velocity, which is roughly eight kilometers per
second or five miles per second. At those insanely high speeds,
the spacecraft moving through the atmosphere creates a plasma field
around the vehicle.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
Yeah, net blanket of plasma distorts communication frequencies, so it's
not uncommon to experience brief blackouts in communication. So big
picture here, Starship is designed to land on Mars where
there are no runways or other humans to help out,
So that means we need to do a propulsive landing
instead of a more traditional means like parachutes, which is
what our Dragon spacecraft uses or a runway like the
(15:42):
Space Shuttle. Propulsive landing enables more rapid reusability.
Speaker 8 (15:46):
Now, as the ship makes its way back to Earth,
we should start hearing some callouts. When we hear at
entry max heating and entry max queue, that means the
ship has made maximum heating and aerodynamic loads it will
experience as it returns. So if it makes it through
all of those, that's a pretty good sign that we're
doing well.
Speaker 7 (16:02):
Yeah, we heard flaps have controlled the vehicle.
Speaker 6 (16:04):
Now. Transonic refers to the period of flight where the
velocities of airflows surrounding and flowing past the vehicle are
concurrently below at and above the speed of sound, somewhere
in the range of mock zero point eight to one
point two. All right, a lot of numbers coming up here,
but for reference, commercial jets have a range of cruising speeds,
but most fly around mock zero point seventy four to
mock zero point eighty five, which is four hundred and
(16:26):
eighty to five hundred and seventy five miles per hour
or seven hundred and seventy to nine hundred and thirty
kilometers per hour. Right now, we're going a little over
twenty six thousand kilometers per hour, So compare that to
the airplane at nine hundred and thirty.
Speaker 7 (16:38):
It's like, pretty crazy how fast we're going here?
Speaker 9 (16:41):
All right?
Speaker 6 (16:41):
And after we hear the call out that starship is transonic,
we should hear the call out that starship is subsonic.
Subsonic a course refers to the speed that is much
less than the speed of sound. So at that point,
the ship's velocity will be starting to slow down.
Speaker 7 (16:55):
Yeah, so rea untrue.
Speaker 8 (16:56):
So far is looking pretty good with those missing tiel
experiments especially. We're putting the ship through a lot today,
but things are looking pretty good so far.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
Do want to remind people that we are pushing ship
to the limits. We've done a lot of these missing
tile tests. We did it back in flight ten. Every
time we do it, we throw something new and the
ship makes it through. This time, we're really pushing it.
We've removed these tiles in some of the spots that
see the highest level of heating, and we remove tiles
(17:26):
that have zero backup protection underneath, so there's essentially just
bare steel. It's among the heat of reentry. We had
a bunch pulled over the primary fuel the LOCKX tanks.
Everything also have some tiles missing around the aft flaps,
specifically on the leading ed. Gonna see if it can
make it through, see if all the flaps hold on,
see if Starship holds together. Could be a bumpy ride,
(17:49):
But this is why we're putting Starship through these flight
tests to really understand what its limits are.
Speaker 7 (17:54):
Looks like we're starting to scrub off velocity a little
bit quicker.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Ship is entering the peak heating phase of flight.
Speaker 7 (17:59):
As we passed through seventy kilometers.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Altitude forward splash down. Starship also form the banking maneuver
simulate how future missions will stay during their return fly its.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
In addition to these missing tile tests, we're doing kind
of a unique flight on the way in. It's going
to do what we call a banking maneuver. So while
we're still going supersonic and even ipersonic, we're doing kind
of a banking turn, and then we'll do a pretty
aggressive turn right as we get into the subsonic and
start doing our belly flop. And that's designed to essentially
(18:31):
be the approach that we would do on a return
to launch site and the tower catch we can see
that speed just continue to bleed off under twenty thousand
kilometers an hour. Ship still holding together.
Speaker 6 (18:42):
Looks like we've made it all the way to the
Indian Ocean. We're coming up kind of near Australia, the
west side of Australia there, So pretty crazy. We're only
fifty six minutes in and we've made it all the way,
you know, halfway around the world. It's actually a good
demonstration of a future capability we hope to have on
Starship where we will do point to point transport on Earth,
so essentially travel anywhere in the world in about an
(19:06):
hour or so, which is going to be pretty crazy.
Imagine going from New York to Sydney in one hour
instead of the twenty hours it takes.
Speaker 7 (19:13):
Currently, we see some.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
Of the heat rate picking up a little bit. It's
like we're getting into our bank maneuver now power sliding
through the atmosphere.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Next toll temperatures are coming down. Vehicle is now at
maximum dynamic pressure all right.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
That was basically our reverse max qus so most aerodynamic
stress that it's going to see during re entry, we
just passed through it. So we're past that. We're past
p heating. Ships still holding together, so we're currently in
this bank maneuver. We're going to see it kind of
roll over and do a pretty pretty significant shift as
we get down closer to the subsonic speeds.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
Yeah, and that bank maneuver that Dan's mentioning is all
in part of us to learn about the guidance navigation
control for return to launch site missions. So in the
near future, we're hoping to return the ship back to
the same pad we just took off on fifty nine
minutes ago, and we've got to do some of these
pretty dynamic bankings to make that trajectory workout.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
All Right, the light show kind of calming down is
we're starting to move into the lower parts of the atmosphere.
Our landing burn should happen right around of an hour
and six minutes after launch. This does almost like a
half circle loop to our actual trajectory. We're heading to
the same exact splashdown point, but we're kind of doing
a more roundabout way to get there, where it's this
(20:27):
kind of big long half moon loop and then a
really aggressive and a twist right at the very end,
and that would line us up with the launch tower.
Starship on a return to launch site would fly over
the tower, do do a quick landing burn flip and
then come down for catching the arms.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Totanure is coming down.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
Yeah, and once we get to around the fifteen kilometer
altitude mark, that's where we have a lot of flight.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
His starship starting a belly flop shose a flight.
Speaker 6 (20:55):
Yep, the belly flop phase that we perfected into sub
overloll campaigns.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
We're entering that now.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
It's sorry to get those raptors ready. Should be two
minutes away from landing burn again. We're going to do
do a flip after we ignite those engines. We'll go
from three down to two for the final phase of
the landing burn and look for another soft splashed out.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Then, just over an hour after launch, starship splash down
right on target the warm waters of the Indian Ocean
off the Western Australian coast.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
Seeing all three center engines have entered the chill phase.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
The ship is making its term for final approach.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
And here's this kind of aggressive final turn that would
essentially position it so it's right behind the launching catch tower,
flapshold and strong.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Ship landing startup.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
There's our landing burn three down to two Starship flober Hey,
welcome back to our starship and we are down in
the Indian Ocean. Let him here at starbase.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
What a day. The success of these last two test
flights comes in the wake of a series of explosive
test failures, including audible booster explodes osians, loss of Starship
vehicles during stage separation, and limited success in achieving orbital velocity.
This mission was the last flight for the current iteration
of the Starship spacecraft. The next test will launch the
(22:13):
new improved Version three model. As always watching on with
great interest was NASA. You see, NASA plans to use
a version of Starship known as the HLS the transfer
crews from the Orion spacecraft down to the lunar surface
and back up again on the Atomis three mission, slated
for launch in mid twenty twenty seven. Starship will also
eventually replace SpaceX's current fleet of Falcon nine rockets and
(22:37):
Dragon capsules, But SpaceX boss Elon Musk as a far
grander vision for the massive one hundred and twenty three
meter tall, reusable, stainless still spacecraft. He sees Starship as
an interplanetary transport system, eventually carrying up to one hundred
people at a time, or one hundred and fifty tons
of supplies on missions not just to the Moon but
(22:57):
also to Mars and beyond. But challenges remain. Must admits
developing Starship's fully reusable orbital heat shield is proving to
be the toughest hurdle so far, but he believes it's
worth the effort because it took nine months to refurbish
a space shuttle's heat shield between each flight. Another problem
yet to be overcome is developing a reusable inflight refueling
(23:20):
system capable of handling the cryogenic propellants used by Starship.
You see, in order to Shuttle between translunar orbit and
the Moon's surface, Starship will need to be refueled, and
that's a crucial step for the Atomis three mission. This
is space time and time that to take another brief
(23:54):
look at some of the other stories making news in
science this week with a Science report. Satellite images are
showing that Iran is rebuilding infrastructure at its Tullagan II
nuclear research site at the par Chen Military Complex in
southeastern Tearran Province. The Institute for Science and International Security
says it's all part of Iran's efforts to reconstitute its
(24:16):
nuclear weapons and missile programs in the wake of the
Iranian war against Israel. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard previously used
their Teligan II facility for designing and testing nuclear weapons.
The new satellite images show that Iran has already covered
at least two structures at the facility with layers of
soil to improve survivability in the event of future air
(24:38):
strikes by the United States or Israel. Israel struck the
facility back in October twenty twenty four, destroying equipment needed
to design and test nuclear devices. Then, in mid June
this year, Israel launched a non precentited bombing campaign on
Iran in response to the Terracets supporting nations multiple attacks,
and the US briefly joined in, using B two stell
(25:00):
bombers to strike key Iranian nuclear facilities. Now, Iran Supreme
leader the Aetola Ali Khameni claims the Islamic Republic's nucleus
sites were not destroyed in the air strikes. Meanwhile, Newsweek's
reporting that Iran has also upgraded and enhanced its balistic
missile stockpiles. These missiles are designed to deliver nuclear payloads
(25:22):
to targets in Europe, the Middle East and Israel. Palaeontologists
have discovered the fossilized remains of a one hundred and
fifty one million euro quiromenid in the Taalbragar fish beds
northeast of Ulan in far western New South Wales. Quiromenids
are a family of non biting insects which played an
important role in freshwater ecosystems. Then you find reported in
(25:45):
the journal Gondwanda Research, represents the oldest known member of
this group in the southern hemisphere and indicates that these
insects were a group of fresh water animals that might
have originated in the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. The fossils
show unique evolutionary adaptation, a terminal disc mechanism that likely
allowed it to firmly anchor it to surrounding rocks. Until now,
(26:08):
this mechanism, which functions in tid influenced habitats, was thought
to be exclusive to marine species. The new species has
been named Talma term Mia taubragar rica, which translates to
fly from the stagnant waters and reflecting the nature of
its habitat at Talbragar. Current research involved analyzing six fossilized specimens,
(26:28):
both pupe and enclosing adults. Scientists are warning about a
new spyware technology which is able to infer the identity
of a person without Wi Fi devices on them, simply
by passively recording communication in radio networks. A report in
the ACMIMS Journal of Data Science found that by observing
(26:49):
the propagation of radio waves, people can create an image
of the surroundings and of any persons who may be
present in them. The authors say this technique works in
a similar way to a normal camera, the difference being
that in this case, radio waves instead of light waves,
are used for the recognition, So it doesn't matter whether
or not you're carrying a Wi Fi device on you,
(27:09):
and switching your device off won't make any difference either.
It's simply sufficient that other Wi Fi devices in your
surroundings are active. In fact, when you think about it,
the technology turns every router into a potential means for surveillance.
So if you regularly pass by a cafe that operates
a Wi Fi network, you could be identified there without
noticing it, and be recognized later by authorities or companies.
(27:33):
Of course, right now there are still easier ways for
secret services or cyber criminals to observe people, for example
by accessing CCTV cameras or video door bells. However, the
omnipresence of wireless networks may eventually become a nearly comprehensive
surveillance infrastructure, with one concerning property. They're invisible and so
raised no suspicion after all, when you think about it,
(27:56):
Wi Fi networks exist in almost every house, in every office,
in restaurants, and right across public spaces. Unlike attax with
light our sensors or previous Wi Fi based methods, which
use channel state information, that is measured data that indicates
how a radio signal changes when it reflects off walls, furniture,
or people, this new technique doesn't need any special hardware.
(28:18):
It works by exploiting the communications of legitimate uses. Its
devices are connected to the Wi Fi network. These regularly
send feedback signals within the network called beamforming feedback information
to the router in an unencrypted form so that it's
readable by anyone in range. This creates images from different
perspectives that can serve to identify an individual person. Once
(28:40):
the underlying machine learning model's being trained, the identification only
takes a few seconds and it has almost one hundred
percent accuracy. Well, Amazon's huge computational infrastructure outage went well
beyond impacting the Internet giant's online shopping website. The AWS
outage had global implications, affecting airlines, healthcare services, banks and
(29:03):
finance companies, as sort as disrupting apps such as Snapchat
and Reddit. So what caused the ardage and why was
it such a big deal? With the details with join
by technology editor Alex saharav Roight from Techadvice dot Live.
Speaker 9 (29:17):
Amazon AWS went down at their cloud service, and there
were a whole stack of sites that were affected because
they use those particular services. And in fact, there's a
thing called downdetector dot com, which is actually part of UKLA,
the speed test people as a company called data Dog,
which was released something called updog dot ai which gives
(29:39):
real time provider status for AWS and over thirty software
as a service or SaaS providers. And you know, we're
talking about companies like OpenAI, GitHub, Slack, Stripe Service, now, Zendesk, Zoom,
and you know various AWS services such as Amazon S three,
aws Lander, Amazon Dynamo, dB and the short version is
(30:02):
that although this competition which includes Microsoft and Google and
I guess there's others as well well, if you have
too much reliance on one provider, then you could have
all these different services and sites go down. And it
just goes to show that, well, maybe you need to
have two cloud providers. Might increase your cost. It will
(30:25):
increase your cost. But I mean, I remember when Larry Ellison,
the chief of Oracle, you know, this would have been
ten twenty years ago. He'd be up on stage at
a giant keynote and you know, you have some service
running and he would yank out one of the services directly,
you know, just live from the stage, and the system
would go down, but it would immediately fail over to
another data center somewhere else. Downtown would be minimal. Now, interestingly,
(30:47):
a WS has their big Reinvent conference in December. I'll
be there in Las Vegas first week of December, and
I'm sure they'll be talking about this and how they
can have the resilient systems and what they can do
to make sure that this sort of internal DNS misconfiguration,
which is apparently what it was, it can't happen again
or there can be alerting of this to the relevant
(31:08):
tech people in advance of this sort of thing happening,
because you know, it went for about fifteen hours. I
mean the sort of ongoing effects went on for a
bit longer, and you know, people were locked out of
being able to accept payments or use services, and yeah,
it just goes to show that the Internet can seem
like it can be you robust and well, I don't
think anyone's going to call it infallible because there's autages
(31:29):
all the time from different providers. But this wasn't a
cyber attack according to everyone that was being reporting about it.
It was a failure of the DNS configuration and when
suddenly traffic is routed and doesn't know where to go,
everything grinds to a whole.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
That's alexaharav Royd from Take Advice, Start Life, and that's
the show for now. Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday
(32:06):
and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Google podcast pocker Casts, Spotify, Acast,
Amazon Music, Bytes, dot Com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast
download provider, and from space Time with Stuart Gary dot com.
Space Time's also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on
(32:26):
Science own radio and on both iHeartRadio and tune in Radio.
And you can help to support our show by visiting
the Spacetime Store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies,
or by becoming a Spacetime Patron, which gives you access
to triple episode commercial free versions of the show, as
well as lots of burnus audio content which doesn't go
to weir, access to our exclusive Facebook group, and other rewards.
(32:51):
Just go to space Time with Stuart Gary dot com
for full details.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This
has been another qual podcast production from bytes dot com.
This is Spacetime Series twenty eight, episode one hundred and
twenty seven, for broadcast on the twenty ninth of October
twenty twenty five. Coming up on space Time, Relics of
the Outer Solar System discovered on the Moon, What Comet
THREEI Atlas is telling astronomers about other Solar systems, and
another successful test flight space Exis Starship Mega Rocket. All
(00:23):
that and more coming up on space Time.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
A new study has confirmed that some meteorites found on
the Moon originated in the dark outer reaches of the
Solar System. Media Rites are critical objects for studying the
formation and evolution of planets. However, most are not preserved
very well on Earth because of atmospheric in geological contamination.
The problems even more severe of fragile carbonaceous of vunotype chondrites,
(01:09):
which count for less than one per cent of all
meteorites found on Earth. In contrast, the Moon serves as
a natural archive for meteorites, benefiting from its lack of
atmosphere and limited geological activity. Now, researchers from the Chinese
Academy of Sciences have identified seven olivine bearing clasts from
two grams of lunar regular collected by the Chungi six
(01:31):
Sample Return Mission. The findings that reported in the proceedings
the National Academy of Sciences shows that trace elements and
oxygen isotope compositions of olivine clasts in the samples confirms
that they are relics of carbonaceous or vanotype chondrites. They
formed through the rapid cooling induced crystallization of melt droplets
and were generated when these chondrites melted as they hit
(01:53):
the lunar surface. The parent bodies of these types of
chondrites were originally formed in the arter Soul Solar System
before eventually migrating to the inner Solar System during the
formation of the terrestrial planet's mercury venus Earth and Mars.
A preminary statistical analysis of meteoritic materials on the Moon
shows that the proportion of these specific types of chondrites
(02:15):
is significantly higher on the lunar surface than in Earth's
meteorite collection. That indicates that the combination of carbonaceous of
Uno type chondrias to the Earth Moon system has been
severely underestimated. Furthermore, the authors found that the samples who
we are rich in water or organic materials, meaning the
discovery also has important implications for understanding the origins of
(02:37):
water on the lunar surface. The authors believe that previously
detected water signatures in lunar samples were likely the result
of the impact of such meteorites. So this study not
only reshaped sciences understanding of how materials migrate through the
Solar System, but it also provides new directions for future
research into the origins and distribution of luke no water
(03:00):
resources this space time still to come. What the interstellar
comet three ee Atlas is telling astronomers about other Solar systems,
and another successful test flight for SpaceX's megastarship. All that
and more still to come on space time new images
(03:34):
of interstellar comet three eye Atlas telling astronomers how this
alien object is evolving as travels through our Solar system
and how other distant solar systems might be very different
from our own. The new findings reported in the Astrophysical
Journal Letters, suggest that three Iye Atlas may have been
active for far longer than scientists expected, thanks to clues
(03:56):
hidden in its comet like tail. The new observations, based
on data from NASA's tests Transiting Exoplanet Survey satellite, and
they provide more information about an object which will only
be visible in the sky for a few more months
before it zooms beyond even the most powerful telescopes reach.
The studies. Lead author aDNA Feinstein from Michigan State University says,
(04:18):
each of the three interstellar objects that have been detected
in our solar system so far one I a mau Mauer,
two I Boris EV, and three I Atlas seem to
be quite unique, and the additional data coming from three
I Outlass is telling astronomers a story about a solar
system very different from the one we live in. In
our system, comets that approach the Sun released dust and gases,
(04:41):
mostly water, from their surfaces and from inside as temperatures increase,
but the images of three I Outlass show activity much
further away from the Sun than expected, and that means
it's likely releasing other molecules like carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
Feinstein says that gives astronomers idea about what comments and
(05:01):
asteroids might be made of in systems beyond our own Sun.
It's always been assumed that other star systems are different
from ours, but now this clear definitive evidence of just
how different they might be. Astronomers expect for our outlets
to be visible for several more months, but they're also
sifting through archival data to see if there are any
images of the object from before it was identified. Capturing
(05:25):
as many observations as possible is essential to better understand
how these objects turn on as they approach the Sun.
These interstellar objects have likely not been worn significantly in millions,
if not billions of years, and any opportunity to see
how they responded to that early heating would be of
extreme interest. This report from nass A TV.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Right now, a fleet of NASA spacecraft are turning their
attention to an unusual object speeding through our Solar system.
NASA funded telescopes have their eyes on the sky all
the time and first spotted this object back in July.
It's a comet now named three I Atlas, and it's
only the third object ever confirmed to have come from
(06:11):
interstellar space. In case you are wondering, this comet does
not pose any threat to Earth, but it does give
scientists a rare chance to study something from beyond our
Solar system. So what are we doing. In addition to
ground based studies, NASA's space telescopes like Hubble, Web and
Spherx have made unique observations and scientists are pouring over
(06:36):
the data. Soon, though, the comet's path will take it
past even more of our robotic explorers. Next, it's heading
towards Mars and spacecraft in orbit and on the surface,
we'll try to catch a glimpse. After that, it's on
toward Jupiter. What will our spacecraft see We'll soon find out.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
This space time still to come. SpaceX has completed a
spectacularly successful eleventh test flight of its massive Staship Mega rocket.
Later in the science report, new satellite images show that
Iran is rebuilding its span nuclear weapons infrastructure. All that
and more still to come on space time. SpaceX has
(07:33):
completed a spectacularly successful eleventh test flight of its massive
stash It Mega rocket, The world's largest and most powerful spacecraft,
blasted off into the early evening skies from the company's
star based launch complex at Bocachica on the Texas Gulf
Coast to ten nine eight seven, six, five four three
(07:57):
two one.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
We have liftoff. Go Super Heavy Go Starship. Thanks for
all the historic flights bad one.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Eagles catch you down rage ster Raptor chamber pressure nomenal,
Who's sternership, nominal power, intelemetry. All right, we are about
forty five seconds into flight. We're still getting the rattle
here at star Factory. We are seeing thirty three out
of thirty three Raptor engines lit on Super Heavy as
it arcs across the Gulf, coming up next on max Q.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
MAKS cut.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
So at this point we've passed through that period of
maximum aerodynamic pressure. The next thing we're looking forward to
is going to be hot staging. At that point, we're
going to see all but three of those Raptor engines
on super Heavy shut down our version of MIKO most
engines cut off instead of main engine. And then after
that we're going to release the clamps that are currently
(08:55):
holding Starship to that hot stage adapter. It's then going
to ignite you. It's six Raptor engines to push it
away from super Heavy and then start making its flight
uphill the vehicles.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Super Heavy booster stage separated just as planned two and
a half minutes after launch, undertaking a successful boostback burn
before making yourself splashed down just as planned. In the
waters of the Gulf of America. During its descent, SpaceX
lit up thirteen raptor engines at the start of the
landing burn before switching to five to steer the booster
instead of the three used in earlier tests. This setup
(09:30):
was designed to give the super Heavy more control, serve
as a backup if any engine shut down.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
See the engines throttling down.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Strodan got off ship ignition stage separation, U specburn startup.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
All right, successful hot staging maneuver. So we've got twelve
to thirteen engines lit back up on boosters, so it's
doing its boost back real excitingly though. We've got six
out of six raptors lit on ship there, so it's
now going to continue to make it's a scent into
outer space. Meanwhile, this boostback is happening. We're using those
thirteen engines, so everything well, twelve out of the thirteen
(10:05):
and then we go down to three and then we're
going to shut down for the end of boost back.
That's sending Super Heavy back towards its planned splash down
zone in the Gulf.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
The Booster then finished its descent using three central engines,
offering briefly above the water for undertaking itself splash down.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
All right, So for Booster, this is one of the
main things we're trying to get is going to be
this landing burn.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
That's Starship is on nominal trajectory.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
Looking good on our trajectory, looking good on everything.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
As we approach that landing, just like tower catches, we
will be doing a thirteen engine landing burn to slow down.
This time it will be in a V three configuration,
and as we're starting to get into the denser part
of the atmosphere, the Booster is using four hypersonic grid
fins to guide itself through atmospheric entry towards its landing site.
Booster landing burns shut down. We saw a thirteen to
(10:54):
five to three B three demonstration and into the water
we go.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Meanwhile, all the starshape up. The stage successfully continued its
journey on its suborbal dejectory into space.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
The next major milestone we're going to be looking for
is CICCO. That's our second stage engine cut off that
should be coming right at about eight minutes and fifty
eight seconds into flight. Just a reminder, this is putting
us into a suborbital trajectory. So we're intentionally just going
slow enough that we're not going to achieve full orbit.
This puts us on a course where those engines shut
(11:28):
off and no matter what, we're coming back internal guidance
in the Indian Ocean terminal guidance. So we should start
seeing the shutdowns come up. In just a couple of seconds.
Our vacks have shut off. Three more to go.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Ship engine cut.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
Off, all ship raptors have shed insertion. You just heard
nominal orbital insertion. So we are on the path that
we wanted to be. So we've got a ship back
in space.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Flight eleven followed a similar mission profile to the previous
test flight back in August. Starshape ran through series of tests,
deployed a satellite, simulated payloads, and undertook a restart of
one of it's vacuum wrapped a rocket engines.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
We are currently venting down the nose cone, essentially the
payload area of starship as we get ready to open
up this payload door. We were able to do this
successfully for the very first time on our last flight
on flight ten. All right, so payload doors open. Next
up going to be to start deploying these Starlink simulators
They are roughly the same size as the V three
(12:29):
Starlink satellites. That starship's going to be carrying. Our next
iteration of starships also going to have a more powerful
pez it's going to deploy these head a little bit
faster speed.
Speaker 7 (12:40):
There we go, all right, first one going out.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
All right, first one's deployed, Getting ready for the second one.
Here we do a little reset back to the center position.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
Yeah, it takes about a minute for each one.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Looks real smooth too. They made a couple of tweaks
of those rails. There goes another one. We're going to
relight one of those center engines. This will be the
third time that we've tried this. We did it successfully
back on flight ten, and then we did it for
the very first time back on flight six. This is
not a deorbit burn. This is demonstrating essentially all of
(13:14):
the systems you would need to do a deorbit burn.
So that's obviously your raptor engine, and then also your
your header tanks, your smaller tanks in the nose cone
where we have liquid oxygen, liquid methane, and a smaller,
more easily pressurized container which we can use for on
orbit burns. And we're also going to tap into those
and we do our landing burn. So this will be
(13:37):
a critical capability. Once we go to full orbital missions,
you'll have to do a deorbit burn to break out
of orbit send it back down to Earth.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
Here we go, all right, there was that raptor RELIGHTE
looks like Engine three full duration. As Dan mentioned, it's
a third attempt, and we've just did it three times
in a row.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Very hard.
Speaker 7 (13:59):
No second orbital insertion.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
The mission involves more in orbit and re entry and
maneuvering operations in order to test different scenarios. The flight
also tested several upgrades aimed at helping Starship eventually fly
back to its loan side. As part of those tests,
SpaceX Engine's also removed some of the spacecraft's hate shield
tiles in order to see how unprotected areas would hold
(14:22):
up when re entering its atmosphere.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Starship is approaching entry interface. Ship is starting entry, good
autitude and.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
See plasma starting to build on the windward side of
the rocket there. And you know, reentry is a critical
phase of flight and we need information on how the
ship systems perform. Reentry is also extremely demanding portion of
flight because we need the ship to scrub off all
of the energy we used to launch the rocket. So
remember the thirty three engines plus the six engines on
(14:48):
ship that we used to get up into space. We
now are using aerobraking essentially to scrub off all that energy.
Speaker 7 (14:54):
We have some tiles on.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
The leeward side of the flaps here, and we have
some different mechanisms stud out basically to see if these
towels will hang on.
Speaker 8 (15:02):
Re Entry is typically a portion of flight where we
don't have communications with spacecraft because it's re entering at
or around orbital velocity, which is roughly eight kilometers per
second or five miles per second. At those insanely high speeds,
the spacecraft moving through the atmosphere creates a plasma field
around the vehicle.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
Yeah, net blanket of plasma distorts communication frequencies, so it's
not uncommon to experience brief blackouts in communication. So big
picture here, Starship is designed to land on Mars where
there are no runways or other humans to help out,
So that means we need to do a propulsive landing
instead of a more traditional means like parachutes, which is
what our Dragon spacecraft uses or a runway like the
(15:42):
Space Shuttle. Propulsive landing enables more rapid reusability.
Speaker 8 (15:46):
Now, as the ship makes its way back to Earth,
we should start hearing some callouts. When we hear at
entry max heating and entry max queue, that means the
ship has made maximum heating and aerodynamic loads it will
experience as it returns. So if it makes it through
all of those, that's a pretty good sign that we're
doing well.
Speaker 7 (16:02):
Yeah, we heard flaps have controlled the vehicle.
Speaker 6 (16:04):
Now. Transonic refers to the period of flight where the
velocities of airflows surrounding and flowing past the vehicle are
concurrently below at and above the speed of sound, somewhere
in the range of mock zero point eight to one
point two. All right, a lot of numbers coming up here,
but for reference, commercial jets have a range of cruising speeds,
but most fly around mock zero point seventy four to
mock zero point eighty five, which is four hundred and
(16:26):
eighty to five hundred and seventy five miles per hour
or seven hundred and seventy to nine hundred and thirty
kilometers per hour. Right now, we're going a little over
twenty six thousand kilometers per hour, So compare that to
the airplane at nine hundred and thirty.
Speaker 7 (16:38):
It's like, pretty crazy how fast we're going here?
Speaker 9 (16:41):
All right?
Speaker 6 (16:41):
And after we hear the call out that starship is transonic,
we should hear the call out that starship is subsonic.
Subsonic a course refers to the speed that is much
less than the speed of sound. So at that point,
the ship's velocity will be starting to slow down.
Speaker 7 (16:55):
Yeah, so rea untrue.
Speaker 8 (16:56):
So far is looking pretty good with those missing tiel
experiments especially. We're putting the ship through a lot today,
but things are looking pretty good so far.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
Do want to remind people that we are pushing ship
to the limits. We've done a lot of these missing
tile tests. We did it back in flight ten. Every
time we do it, we throw something new and the
ship makes it through. This time, we're really pushing it.
We've removed these tiles in some of the spots that
see the highest level of heating, and we remove tiles
(17:26):
that have zero backup protection underneath, so there's essentially just
bare steel. It's among the heat of reentry. We had
a bunch pulled over the primary fuel the LOCKX tanks.
Everything also have some tiles missing around the aft flaps,
specifically on the leading ed. Gonna see if it can
make it through, see if all the flaps hold on,
see if Starship holds together. Could be a bumpy ride,
(17:49):
But this is why we're putting Starship through these flight
tests to really understand what its limits are.
Speaker 7 (17:54):
Looks like we're starting to scrub off velocity a little
bit quicker.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Ship is entering the peak heating phase of flight.
Speaker 7 (17:59):
As we passed through seventy kilometers.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Altitude forward splash down. Starship also form the banking maneuver
simulate how future missions will stay during their return fly its.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
In addition to these missing tile tests, we're doing kind
of a unique flight on the way in. It's going
to do what we call a banking maneuver. So while
we're still going supersonic and even ipersonic, we're doing kind
of a banking turn, and then we'll do a pretty
aggressive turn right as we get into the subsonic and
start doing our belly flop. And that's designed to essentially
(18:31):
be the approach that we would do on a return
to launch site and the tower catch we can see
that speed just continue to bleed off under twenty thousand
kilometers an hour. Ship still holding together.
Speaker 6 (18:42):
Looks like we've made it all the way to the
Indian Ocean. We're coming up kind of near Australia, the
west side of Australia there, So pretty crazy. We're only
fifty six minutes in and we've made it all the way,
you know, halfway around the world. It's actually a good
demonstration of a future capability we hope to have on
Starship where we will do point to point transport on Earth,
so essentially travel anywhere in the world in about an
(19:06):
hour or so, which is going to be pretty crazy.
Imagine going from New York to Sydney in one hour
instead of the twenty hours it takes.
Speaker 7 (19:13):
Currently, we see some.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
Of the heat rate picking up a little bit. It's
like we're getting into our bank maneuver now power sliding
through the atmosphere.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Next toll temperatures are coming down. Vehicle is now at
maximum dynamic pressure all right.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
That was basically our reverse max qus so most aerodynamic
stress that it's going to see during re entry, we
just passed through it. So we're past that. We're past
p heating. Ships still holding together, so we're currently in
this bank maneuver. We're going to see it kind of
roll over and do a pretty pretty significant shift as
we get down closer to the subsonic speeds.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
Yeah, and that bank maneuver that Dan's mentioning is all
in part of us to learn about the guidance navigation
control for return to launch site missions. So in the
near future, we're hoping to return the ship back to
the same pad we just took off on fifty nine
minutes ago, and we've got to do some of these
pretty dynamic bankings to make that trajectory workout.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
All Right, the light show kind of calming down is
we're starting to move into the lower parts of the atmosphere.
Our landing burn should happen right around of an hour
and six minutes after launch. This does almost like a
half circle loop to our actual trajectory. We're heading to
the same exact splashdown point, but we're kind of doing
a more roundabout way to get there, where it's this
(20:27):
kind of big long half moon loop and then a
really aggressive and a twist right at the very end,
and that would line us up with the launch tower.
Starship on a return to launch site would fly over
the tower, do do a quick landing burn flip and
then come down for catching the arms.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Totanure is coming down.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
Yeah, and once we get to around the fifteen kilometer
altitude mark, that's where we have a lot of flight.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
His starship starting a belly flop shose a flight.
Speaker 6 (20:55):
Yep, the belly flop phase that we perfected into sub
overloll campaigns.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
We're entering that now.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
It's sorry to get those raptors ready. Should be two
minutes away from landing burn again. We're going to do
do a flip after we ignite those engines. We'll go
from three down to two for the final phase of
the landing burn and look for another soft splashed out.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Then, just over an hour after launch, starship splash down
right on target the warm waters of the Indian Ocean
off the Western Australian coast.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
Seeing all three center engines have entered the chill phase.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
The ship is making its term for final approach.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
And here's this kind of aggressive final turn that would
essentially position it so it's right behind the launching catch tower,
flapshold and strong.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Ship landing startup.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
There's our landing burn three down to two Starship flober Hey,
welcome back to our starship and we are down in
the Indian Ocean. Let him here at starbase.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
What a day. The success of these last two test
flights comes in the wake of a series of explosive
test failures, including audible booster explodes osians, loss of Starship
vehicles during stage separation, and limited success in achieving orbital velocity.
This mission was the last flight for the current iteration
of the Starship spacecraft. The next test will launch the
(22:13):
new improved Version three model. As always watching on with
great interest was NASA. You see, NASA plans to use
a version of Starship known as the HLS the transfer
crews from the Orion spacecraft down to the lunar surface
and back up again on the Atomis three mission, slated
for launch in mid twenty twenty seven. Starship will also
eventually replace SpaceX's current fleet of Falcon nine rockets and
(22:37):
Dragon capsules, But SpaceX boss Elon Musk as a far
grander vision for the massive one hundred and twenty three
meter tall, reusable, stainless still spacecraft. He sees Starship as
an interplanetary transport system, eventually carrying up to one hundred
people at a time, or one hundred and fifty tons
of supplies on missions not just to the Moon but
(22:57):
also to Mars and beyond. But challenges remain. Must admits
developing Starship's fully reusable orbital heat shield is proving to
be the toughest hurdle so far, but he believes it's
worth the effort because it took nine months to refurbish
a space shuttle's heat shield between each flight. Another problem
yet to be overcome is developing a reusable inflight refueling
(23:20):
system capable of handling the cryogenic propellants used by Starship.
You see, in order to Shuttle between translunar orbit and
the Moon's surface, Starship will need to be refueled, and
that's a crucial step for the Atomis three mission. This
is space time and time that to take another brief
(23:54):
look at some of the other stories making news in
science this week with a Science report. Satellite images are
showing that Iran is rebuilding infrastructure at its Tullagan II
nuclear research site at the par Chen Military Complex in
southeastern Tearran Province. The Institute for Science and International Security
says it's all part of Iran's efforts to reconstitute its
(24:16):
nuclear weapons and missile programs in the wake of the
Iranian war against Israel. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard previously used
their Teligan II facility for designing and testing nuclear weapons.
The new satellite images show that Iran has already covered
at least two structures at the facility with layers of
soil to improve survivability in the event of future air
(24:38):
strikes by the United States or Israel. Israel struck the
facility back in October twenty twenty four, destroying equipment needed
to design and test nuclear devices. Then, in mid June
this year, Israel launched a non precentited bombing campaign on
Iran in response to the Terracets supporting nations multiple attacks,
and the US briefly joined in, using B two stell
(25:00):
bombers to strike key Iranian nuclear facilities. Now, Iran Supreme
leader the Aetola Ali Khameni claims the Islamic Republic's nucleus
sites were not destroyed in the air strikes. Meanwhile, Newsweek's
reporting that Iran has also upgraded and enhanced its balistic
missile stockpiles. These missiles are designed to deliver nuclear payloads
(25:22):
to targets in Europe, the Middle East and Israel. Palaeontologists
have discovered the fossilized remains of a one hundred and
fifty one million euro quiromenid in the Taalbragar fish beds
northeast of Ulan in far western New South Wales. Quiromenids
are a family of non biting insects which played an
important role in freshwater ecosystems. Then you find reported in
(25:45):
the journal Gondwanda Research, represents the oldest known member of
this group in the southern hemisphere and indicates that these
insects were a group of fresh water animals that might
have originated in the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. The fossils
show unique evolutionary adaptation, a terminal disc mechanism that likely
allowed it to firmly anchor it to surrounding rocks. Until now,
(26:08):
this mechanism, which functions in tid influenced habitats, was thought
to be exclusive to marine species. The new species has
been named Talma term Mia taubragar rica, which translates to
fly from the stagnant waters and reflecting the nature of
its habitat at Talbragar. Current research involved analyzing six fossilized specimens,
(26:28):
both pupe and enclosing adults. Scientists are warning about a
new spyware technology which is able to infer the identity
of a person without Wi Fi devices on them, simply
by passively recording communication in radio networks. A report in
the ACMIMS Journal of Data Science found that by observing
(26:49):
the propagation of radio waves, people can create an image
of the surroundings and of any persons who may be
present in them. The authors say this technique works in
a similar way to a normal camera, the difference being
that in this case, radio waves instead of light waves,
are used for the recognition, So it doesn't matter whether
or not you're carrying a Wi Fi device on you,
(27:09):
and switching your device off won't make any difference either.
It's simply sufficient that other Wi Fi devices in your
surroundings are active. In fact, when you think about it,
the technology turns every router into a potential means for surveillance.
So if you regularly pass by a cafe that operates
a Wi Fi network, you could be identified there without
noticing it, and be recognized later by authorities or companies.
(27:33):
Of course, right now there are still easier ways for
secret services or cyber criminals to observe people, for example
by accessing CCTV cameras or video door bells. However, the
omnipresence of wireless networks may eventually become a nearly comprehensive
surveillance infrastructure, with one concerning property. They're invisible and so
raised no suspicion after all, when you think about it,
(27:56):
Wi Fi networks exist in almost every house, in every office,
in restaurants, and right across public spaces. Unlike attax with
light our sensors or previous Wi Fi based methods, which
use channel state information, that is measured data that indicates
how a radio signal changes when it reflects off walls, furniture,
or people, this new technique doesn't need any special hardware.
(28:18):
It works by exploiting the communications of legitimate uses. Its
devices are connected to the Wi Fi network. These regularly
send feedback signals within the network called beamforming feedback information
to the router in an unencrypted form so that it's
readable by anyone in range. This creates images from different
perspectives that can serve to identify an individual person. Once
(28:40):
the underlying machine learning model's being trained, the identification only
takes a few seconds and it has almost one hundred
percent accuracy. Well, Amazon's huge computational infrastructure outage went well
beyond impacting the Internet giant's online shopping website. The AWS
outage had global implications, affecting airlines, healthcare services, banks and
(29:03):
finance companies, as sort as disrupting apps such as Snapchat
and Reddit. So what caused the ardage and why was
it such a big deal? With the details with join
by technology editor Alex saharav Roight from Techadvice dot Live.
Speaker 9 (29:17):
Amazon AWS went down at their cloud service, and there
were a whole stack of sites that were affected because
they use those particular services. And in fact, there's a
thing called downdetector dot com, which is actually part of UKLA,
the speed test people as a company called data Dog,
which was released something called updog dot ai which gives
(29:39):
real time provider status for AWS and over thirty software
as a service or SaaS providers. And you know, we're
talking about companies like OpenAI, GitHub, Slack, Stripe Service, now, Zendesk, Zoom,
and you know various AWS services such as Amazon S three,
aws Lander, Amazon Dynamo, dB and the short version is
(30:02):
that although this competition which includes Microsoft and Google and
I guess there's others as well well, if you have
too much reliance on one provider, then you could have
all these different services and sites go down. And it
just goes to show that, well, maybe you need to
have two cloud providers. Might increase your cost. It will
(30:25):
increase your cost. But I mean, I remember when Larry Ellison,
the chief of Oracle, you know, this would have been
ten twenty years ago. He'd be up on stage at
a giant keynote and you know, you have some service
running and he would yank out one of the services directly,
you know, just live from the stage, and the system
would go down, but it would immediately fail over to
another data center somewhere else. Downtown would be minimal. Now, interestingly,
(30:47):
a WS has their big Reinvent conference in December. I'll
be there in Las Vegas first week of December, and
I'm sure they'll be talking about this and how they
can have the resilient systems and what they can do
to make sure that this sort of internal DNS misconfiguration,
which is apparently what it was, it can't happen again
or there can be alerting of this to the relevant
(31:08):
tech people in advance of this sort of thing happening,
because you know, it went for about fifteen hours. I
mean the sort of ongoing effects went on for a
bit longer, and you know, people were locked out of
being able to accept payments or use services, and yeah,
it just goes to show that the Internet can seem
like it can be you robust and well, I don't
think anyone's going to call it infallible because there's autages
(31:29):
all the time from different providers. But this wasn't a
cyber attack according to everyone that was being reporting about it.
It was a failure of the DNS configuration and when
suddenly traffic is routed and doesn't know where to go,
everything grinds to a whole.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
That's alexaharav Royd from Take Advice, Start Life, and that's
the show for now. Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday
(32:06):
and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Google podcast pocker Casts, Spotify, Acast,
Amazon Music, Bytes, dot Com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast
download provider, and from space Time with Stuart Gary dot com.
Space Time's also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on
(32:26):
Science own radio and on both iHeartRadio and tune in Radio.
And you can help to support our show by visiting
the Spacetime Store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies,
or by becoming a Spacetime Patron, which gives you access
to triple episode commercial free versions of the show, as
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(32:51):
Just go to space Time with Stuart Gary dot com
for full details.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This
has been another qual podcast production from bytes dot com.
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