All Episodes

November 16, 2022 11 mins

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Listenlive at Asmania Talks dot com dot a U.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
And on the phone.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Right now we're going to We're going far far away,
far far far away, further than you think. Talking to
astrophysicist Brad Teker, of course, from the Mount Stromlow Observatory.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good I Brad, How are you today? Good?

Speaker 3 (00:20):
How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm well, I'm well.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Finally they got the atomus up and off in the US.
They've been trying for a few weeks, haven't they.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
They have.

Speaker 4 (00:29):
The first attempt was actually way back in August twenty eighth.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
When they started to do that, they had a temperature
sensor problem in the tank, especially with.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
The bit warmer, and then the second time they had
a leak of some sort. Guest.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
The fix to the first time was to fill it
up slower, so when they did that a few days
later they did, but then they had a massive leak
which they had to replace the seal because obviously leaking
fuel and explosions is never a good thing. And then
they were gonna they fixed it after a couple of weeks,
but then they had Hurricane Ian go through the Florida

(01:08):
and coasts and Cuba and that sort of thing.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
So then they said, I, well, we'll just wait until
that's done.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
Then they scheduled it for Monday, but they had Hurricane Nicole,
and they eventually got it last night. Though they got
it last night after technical and hurricanes. There were no hurricanes.
They had a few technical small snags along the way,
but they got there.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
It's amazing these things because we kind of become what
we sort of assume that it's something easy to do,
but it actually isn't.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Isn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
It's hard. It's still hard to do.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
It's hard.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
You know, there are so many things that have to work.
And you know, a rocket is a giant controlled explosion, right,
that's reasoning, is what it is that you trap people
to the top of.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
So you want to make sure it works.

Speaker 4 (01:53):
And you know, all of this system. You just think
about how often you know your car has a problem
and need the service you need to replace something goes out,
And then you think about all the safety checks that
aeroplane does. A rocket is that, you know, times one
hundred if not war. You know, all of that's right,
So all these moving parts, everything has to work right.
And so they and they obviously exercise a high degree

(02:16):
of caution to make sure that's the case as well.
And so you said, you kind of get complacent that, hey,
it's going to happen, But it did happen, and that
was the key part.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Did they have this many problems back in nineteen sixty
nine when they went to the moon.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
Or we do when we often forget that there was
In fact, Apollo won the first Apollo mission and a
disaster the three astronauts perished due to the testing of it.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
In fact, one of the reasons.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
Why Artemus has no people on it is lessons learnt
from that. They're testing everything in one go without people.
So if something goes wrong, you know, yes you would
lose a rocket, that would be said, but no one will.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Lose their life.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
You know. Even on the Apollo eleven mission, they had
to enact something called the Red Team, and the Red
Team was enacted actually last night as well. And the
Red Team we focus on the bravery employees of the astronauts.
The Red Teams are a group of people who say, yep,
we will go tinker with the rocket when it's fully
ready to night and fuel ending right underneath where that happened.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
You know, it's like saying I'm going to go.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
Stick poke the bear with a giant steak. You know,
that's what they're signing up for. They had to do
that on the Polo Levin due to a little malfunction
they had to fix on the rocket pad when the
fuel was loaded. They had to do the same thing
last night, so, you know, And that's the point is
we often don't, you know, once it's worked, we don't
really remember all those little pauses and tweaks and problems

(03:39):
that go ahead. We just focus on, hey, it went
to the Moon and people landed, and just as we
will be focusing the rest of the time in the
future on hey, Artemis one worked and now we'll be
sending people and that sort of thing tonight.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yep. So this is in why are we going to
the Moon?

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Because I mean, adamus Is is sort of like a
stepping stone towards going back to the Moon again. How
do we need to go there? Is there something there
that we haven't seen yet?

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Well, so there's a couple of reasons.

Speaker 4 (04:04):
One of them is that to build a longer presence
on the Moon. The Apollo missions only went there for
a few days, and they did lots of amazing things
these missions will stay a lot longer, and that's actually
to build a semi semi permanent presence on the Moon.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
This actually allows an amazing.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
Amount of science. You know, we don't reflect just how
much science happened from Apollos. This is going to be
dramatically different. But then it's also to get equipment ready
and pave the way to get to Mars, right, because
it's not just let's go to the Moon, it's let's
get to the moon.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
On the way to Mars. And it's kind of like
a race, right. You know.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
You don't just learn how to ride a bike and
then go ride the Tour de France. Sorry, you know,
you don't learn to drive a car and go in
the Bathroo's five hundred. You ease your way into it.
And that's what the moon is about. You don't jump
to that Bathor's five hundred, which is Mars.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Get eas your.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
Way onto the highway, get used to that before you
go to the next level.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
And that's what the moon and art of this is
all about.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Pretty fascinating stuff. So what are we going to be
putting on on Mars. It's McDonald's.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
I think the moon.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Will essentially turn into a servo.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
You know, the idea is exactly. I mean, the moon
has ice, and that's the other thing is ice is
H two O HJO can actually be converted into.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
Rocket fuel.

Speaker 4 (05:22):
The rocket Artemis uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. That's
the same ingredients that we have. So the moon will
essentially kind of be seven to eleven, just with fresher
food so you know, are zom but and then you know,
Mars will be the big exploration.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
That's the big gold.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
What is on Mars? Why do we need to get
to Mars? What's the goal here?

Speaker 4 (05:47):
Is one of the big questions is is that the
idea of looking for life understanding Mars. When we when
we think of the history of Earth and we compare
it to say Venus and Mars, Venus kind of went
one way in terms of crazy weird planet.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Mars went the other way.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
Venus has a very thick atmosphere, very hot right away greenhows.
Mars kind of went the opposite way. So it will
tell us a lot about Earth actually studying Mars and
maybe in the future studying Venus with probes or something
like that. And then it's that question of life and
that sort of thing so that's one of the big questions.
But even then, it's kind of if we could do Mars, well,

(06:26):
maybe we'll send things further into the moons of Jupiter
or something like that. Probably not people, but probes.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
And that's the big quest I mean, some people talk
about living on Mars.

Speaker 4 (06:35):
You know that that's a very distant dream. But you know,
sending people to Mars in the twenty.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Forties is not that exaggerated.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
If all the stuff on the moon can work.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
That's just amazing, isn't it absolutely amazing? We've come such
a long way. I mean, people say that we're ruining
this earth, so maybe we should try and find somewhere
in an alternative place.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Is that an option or is that just confis?

Speaker 4 (06:59):
People talk people talk about it, but you know, Mars
is Mars is really terrible.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
I don't think anyone wants to live there.

Speaker 5 (07:07):
I mean really it's I mean, some people do, but
it's you know, I always say, you don't have a
flock of people moving to Central Australia, right, you know,
it's a you know, Central Australia is a hard place
to live in terms of resources.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Mars is that time's you know, thirty or forty.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
So it's going to be tricky. It will be possible
to have some sort of experiments and some sort of
you know, potentially based or science operation there in terms
of long term living for people. I don't think it's
really practical. I wouldn't be signing up, let's say that.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
But it does help us understand things.

Speaker 5 (07:43):
You know.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
One of the things that's different and also with these
missions is.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
It's not just a US thing as well. There's a
lot of Australian work. Yeah, you know, there there will
be an Australian rover that goes on Artemis four. Not
just the communications people are building science experiments. There's actually
a lot of work going in food, right, you know,
people can need to eat when they go to the
Moon or Mars. You can't just have frize food and

(08:07):
that sort of thing. So there's actually a lot of
lessons and work to be done and how to develop
crops and that sort of thing that can deal with
the limits of space and that means actually that's very
interesting for growing in here on Earth as well. So
there's a lot of those overlaps and that's a lot
of what Australia is going to be focusing.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
On in the next ten to twenty years.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
The pathm makes me just just amazing is the fact.
I mean years ago people from England, say, didn't even
know Australia was here, and then they discovered Australia and thought,
oh wow, there's a whole place here. We didn't even
know this was here. We're sort of at that point
with space, aren't we. Do you think we're ever going
to be looking you know, just whizzing to Mars for

(08:47):
lunch and then coming back again or whatever.

Speaker 4 (08:50):
Is this just say, maybe not Mars, but you know
the idea of kind of travel. Maybe it's just around
Earth and into space. I don't think is a dramatically
in the future as one may imagine. You know, I
don't think it's one hundred years into the future type thing.
I think it's as you said, more recent than you
know people to people navigating and exploring on Earth. As

(09:13):
he said, in terms of how much progress has happened,
there's so much happening in space. And that's also why
it's different because so many countries and groups are doing it.
You're not just relying on the US and Russia, and
it's not just a race to one place. It's a
whole new body of research and exploration and investigation that
we find ourselves in and the technology allows us to
do new things that we just never could have in

(09:34):
the past, you know, And this is going to be
the exciting, you know, part of the next ten to
twenty years.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
You know, people have been waiting with this ore. When
are humans going back to the moon and all that inspiration?

Speaker 4 (09:47):
And now there's just so many things happening one after another,
you know, for people like me to read the exciting
field to be in, and it just means all that
much more discovery and exploration ahead of us on near Earth,
on the own Mars and further.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
Gosh, are you gonna put your hand up for it?

Speaker 1 (10:04):
No?

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Not a chance, not a chance.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Really, When you know how sausage is made, you don't eat.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Sausage, right, You'll live it to someone else to actually
be the guinea pig in there.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
I am glad. There are people who want to be
that person. I am glad. I am not that person.
You know.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
It takes us and that's the thing that takes a
special mindset and a special person to you know, because
you will have issues, you will have instances you know,
to think about you, maybe hundreds of thousands to millions
or billions. If you're going to Mars kilometers away from
Earth and the only person who can rely on the
other few people around you, you know that takes a

(10:42):
special person, and I'm glad those people exist. But I'm
happy to stay firmly planted on.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Earth and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
You do the work from back here.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
We'll let you get back to an astrophysicist Brad Tucker
from the Strumlow observis Ate. It's been fascinating, absolutely amazing.
I'm sure we could have talked all day, but we've
got to do something else now. But look, thanks for chatting. Okay,
talk to you very soon.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
Take care.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
It is tas Mania Talks.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
Listen live at Tasmania Talks dot com dot a
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.