Lost Wanderer: 01/12/25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Oh, I'm talking of my breast weeping up behind into
the stars of the centuries.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Of the Centauri, my co on the space night till
now with the stars and the US long, I'm friends

(00:50):
and family on the stars ship rule.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Time for this nation to take a clearly leading role
in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the
key to our future on Earth.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
H M All.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
On Bio.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
Today is a day from morning and remember Nancy and
I are gained the cores, but the tragedy of the
Shuttle challenge.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
The following program may contain claus language, adult teens, and
bad attempts as human listener discretion.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Is it vibe?

Speaker 4 (02:49):
What is President Trump's goal? What is his vision? He
wants to put an American flag on Mars.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Cliff and anguality day here they ain't gonna have landed.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
I am your host J E. Double f also known
as a cosmic bard over on X and this is
a Lost Wanderer podcast for January twelfth, twenty twenty five.
First off, I want them. Weish everyone a happy uh
twenty twenty five happy New Year. I hope everyone had

(03:37):
a fun and adventurous holiday break. That said, we sadly
have had a bit of a less than stellar start
to twenty twenty five, you know, from you know, terrorist
attacks to snow in the South Town. U fact, Greenland

(03:59):
may be per just and you know, especially we have
the fires going on in California, and in regards to that,
I'm going to start there tonight. Mainly regarding the often
mentioned on this program, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Ragion

(04:20):
Eden fire has devastated Alta, Dana, and other neighborhoods at
the feet of the San Gabriel Mountains just north of
Los Angeles. However, firefighters have managed to keep the flames
away from JPL, NASA's of course, Lead Center for Planetary Exploration,
which lies just to the west of it. JPL director

(04:41):
Lori Leshan on January tenth on x set update, JPL
is untouched by fire due to the brave dedication of
our first responders, but our community has been seriously impacted,
with over one hundred and fifty jplers who have lost
their homes and many more displaced. Sadly, that is the
the last update we got from her, so there hasn't

(05:02):
been an update in two days. I'm hoping JPL is
still standing and for those that do not know, JPL,
which runs NASA's Perseverance and Curiosity Mars rover missions, among
many other projects, has actually been closed since January eighth,
the day after the fire began. And we wish all

(05:22):
dealing with this event God's feed and health, and we
truly do here at LW hope that fires will be
put out as soon as humanly possible. Now, so, as
you may see if you're watching the stream from the
ACS serenade, we've sort of updated some of our hardware

(05:44):
in her and one edition that really I think stands
out in the bottom center is the addition of an
updated day counter. And yes, I'm talking about stranded on
the ISS. Well, we do sort of have an update
on Sonny and Butch, the astronaut duo who of course

(06:04):
flew the first ever crewed mission of Boeing Starliner and
probably last ever, will have to wait a little longer
to rejoin us back here on Earth. The next crew
rotation mission to the ISS Space Axis, Crew ten has
been delayed to no earlier than late March of twenty

(06:25):
twenty five. Now, as we've talked about on this show
a lot, Crew ten was originally slated to fly in February,
but it has been pushed back to allow time for
SpaceX to compete work on a brand new Crew Dragon
spacecraft or the mission. NASA said in a statement the

(06:45):
delay means at least an extra month aboard the ISS
for astronauts of the Space Axis Crew nine fight, who
won't depart the lab until after Crew ten's arrival. The
new delay will bring Willmore and William's time in space
to around nine months in total. Remember, this is far

(07:09):
longer than the original ten day or so that their
mission was originally expected to last. Now. Freedom is one
of four crew Dragons currently in space Exis Fleet. Two
of the others, Endeavor and Endurance, remain in rotation for
use in NASA's commercial crew program and private astronaut flights
such as the Axiom Space missions. The fourth Resilience Blue

(07:31):
Space Exis Crew one mission and has since been used
for the private space flight pursuits. A billionaire entrepreneur and
philanthorus Jared Isagman, who by the way, was recently tapped
by President like Donald Trump to become the next NASA administrator.
Adding a fifth Crew Dragon to its fleet will actually
end up allowing SpaceX more versatility in its commercial offerings,

(07:54):
and NASA, well, let's face it, we'll have some extra
flexibility in its mission manifest as well. For instance, had
a fifth Dragon been available to launch without disruption to
the Crew nine and Crew ten missions, it's possible NASA
could have utilized such a vehicle to actually bring star
Liners Wilmore and Williams home at an earlier date. Now.
Steve Stitch, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew program, said in

(08:16):
a statement, quote, we appreciate the hard work by SpaceX
team to expand the Dragon fleet and support of our missions,
and the flexibility of the station program and expedition crews
as we work together to compete and complete the new
capsule's readiness for flight. Now, SpaceX is coming out of
the gate for twenty twenty five with a complete head

(08:41):
of steam, because, if you haven't heard, January fifteenth is
going to be a very very important busy day. First,
we're going to have Firefly araspaces Morgan sorry side tractor anyway.

(09:02):
Aerospace Fireflight Airspace's Blue Ghost lunar Lander is now scheduled
to launch to the Moon at one eleven am on Wednesday,
January fifteenth, taking off from Launch Complex thirty nine A
at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission, known
as Ghost Riders in the Sky, will see Blue Ghost
basically ride aboard a SpaceX Workhorse Falcon nine rocket to

(09:24):
the Moon. Tagging along for the flight will be the
Resilience Moonlander, built by Japanese firm I Space. The company
previously attempted a moon landing with a Hakudah ar lander,
which unfortunately crashed into the lunar surface in April of
twenty twenty three. Now, after launching, Blue Ghosts will spend
twenty five days orbiting Earth before performing an engine burn

(09:46):
to put it on lunar transit trajectory that will take
it to the Moon. Once there, it will spend sixteen
days orbiting the Moon while preparing for an autonomous landing
on the surface. Its destination is the Sea of Crisis,
a large ball sanic plane some four hundred and sixty
miles wide, formed actually by an ancient asteroid impact. Now

(10:07):
within thirty minutes of touching down, If all goes according
to plan, the lander should begin transmitting its first high
def images from the lunar surface. Blue Ghosts will only
have fourteen days on the Moon before lunar night falls,
depleting the Lander of its solar power source, although its
battery should give it about five hours of power to
capture the lunar dusk. Blue Ghosts will carry ten NASA

(10:31):
lead led science experiments and technology demonstrators to the lunar
surface as part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Service
Programs or CLPS. Then a few hours later, Starship seven
SpaceX will attempt to break some new ground on the

(10:52):
upcoming mission as well. For example, for the first time ever,
Ship will attempt to deploy payloads in space. Now before
we get too involved, it's ten mock or fake satellites
similar in size and weight to next generation Starlink satellites,
as he basically the first exercise of a satellite deploy mission.

(11:14):
The Starlink simulators will be on the same subwab of
a trajectory as Starship, with a splash down targeted in
the Indian Ocean. Now. Super Heavy will also sport reused
hardware for the first time on flight seven. A raptor
engine from the booster launch and return on Starship's fifth
flight test will be part of super Heavy and with

(11:39):
the new year, hitting US some harder than others. Elon
Musk did have a few comments regarding US based policy
and what he would like to see, and despite his
openness to spout basically anything on Twitter X, he often
will refrain from saying much on NASA or its overall
goal to return for the first time humans to the Moon.

(12:02):
And I'll see how many of you called what I
just said there. However, during the last ten days, Musk
has begun airing some of these privately thoughts publicly. On
Christmas Day, for example, he wrote on X quote the
Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient, as it is a job's
maximizing program, not a results maximizing program. Something entirely new

(12:28):
is needed unquote. Agreed. Then he added this quote, No,
we're going straight to Mars. The moon is a distraction unquote.
Now it is fair to say it's one thing if

(12:48):
Musk was expressing his opinion as a private citizen, and
he is, but he's also been playing a somewhat significant
part in the election of Donald Trump as the next
President of the United States and has assumed an important
advisory role for the incoming administration. He may also partly
be responsible for the expected nomination of Jaredizing then to

(13:12):
become the next administrator of NASA. Now, the fate of
Artemis is an important question not just for NASA, but
for the US commercial space industry, the European Space Agency,
and other international partners who have aligned with the return
of humans for the first time to the Moon. With Artemis,

(13:32):
the United States is in competition with China to establish
a meaningful presence on the surface of the Moon. Based
upon conversations with people involved in developing space policy for
the Trump admin, you can end up making some educated
guesses about how to interpret Musk comments. None of these
people would disagree with Muck's Musk assertion that quote the

(13:57):
Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient unquote because it is, and
that some changes are warranted. They are with that said,
the Artemis program is probably not going away, after all,
it was the first Trump admin that created the program
about five years ago. However, it may be less well remembered.

(14:21):
At the first Trump White House push for more significant changes,
including a major course correction at NASA at the time,
then Vice President Mike Pence in May of twenty nineteen
said the following quote, I call on NASA to adapt
new policies and embrace a new mindset. If our current

(14:42):
contractors can't meet this objective, then we will find ones
that will. And speaking of the incoming Vice president, it's
unluckily that the National Space Council will be reconstituted under JD.
Vans in any different way that it has been. But
to a large extent, NASA has resisted this change during

(15:05):
the remainder of the Trump admin, keeping its core group
of major contractors such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin in place.
Of course, it did have help from key US senators
such as Richard Shelby, the now retired Republican from Alabama,
but this time the push for change is likely to
be more concerted, especially with key elements of NASA's architecture,

(15:29):
including the Space Launch System rocket being bypassed by privately
developed rockets such as Space Ex's Starship and Blue Origins
New Glen rocket, not just one of them, but probably
by both. Now in all likely NASA will adopt a
new Artemis plan that involves initiatives to both the Moon
and to Mars. When mus said, quote, We're going straight

(15:51):
to Mars unquote, he may have meant that this will
be the thrust of Space X with support from NASA
that does not include a separate initiative, possibly led by
Blue Origin with help from NASA to develop lunar returned plans.
Isaacman who is keeping really he's been keeping a fairly
low profile ahead of his nomination, really hasn't weighed in

(16:13):
on any of Musk's comments, at least publicly. However, when
his nomination was announced one month ago, he did make
a your main comment on X quote. I was born
after the moon landings. My children were born after the
final Space Shuttle launch. With the support of President Trump,
I can promise you this. We will never again lose

(16:37):
our ability to journey to the stars and never settle
for second place. We will inspire children yours and mine
to look up and dream of what is possible. Americans
will walk on the Moon and Mars, and in doing so,
we will make life better here on Earth. Unquote. Now,

(17:00):
I don't know about you, but that's sure's health. Sounds
like a lot of stuff I've talked about over the
last several months and years on this program. So needless
to say, I support isaacmanh in this, and it will
be important to remember that the trip to Mars and
maybe the Moon we'll see if he stops there, maybe

(17:22):
remembered fondly. When statues are built in the city of
Star Based, Texas, Have you heard about this one? SpaceX
is hoping to officially make its Star Based facility an
actual new city in South Texas. The private spaceflight company
submitted a petition to local authorities on December twelfth, requesting

(17:46):
an election on incorporating the star Based launch site as
its own city. The star bas facility, located near Bokachka, Texas,
has seen some of SpaceX's most ambitious launches, including the
recent Starship Rocket Catch, and will become the company's new
headquarters in a move from California to Texas. Quote. To

(18:09):
continue growing the work force necessary to rapidly develop and
manufacture Starship, we need the ability to grow Starbase as
a community unquote, SpaceX said in the petition, which was
shared in a post on X. They continued, this is
why we are requesting that Cameron County call on election
to enable the incorporation of Starbase as the newest city

(18:31):
in the Rio Grande Valley. Now, thousands of SpaceX employees
work at Starbase, with several hundred living on site. The
company credits the generation of hundreds of millions in income
and taxes for local businesses and government to the launch facility.
Given the remote location of the launch site, SpaceX already

(18:53):
helps manage the area's roads, utilities, and assist with schooling
and medical care for residents through agreements with the county.
With Starship expected to quote fundamentally alter humanity's access to
space unquote, which is of course, with SpaceX aims to
make the area of starbas launch site the quote gateway

(19:14):
to Mars unquote. Now, this is not the first time
turning Starbase into its own city has actually come up.
SpaceX foundery Elon Musk previously proposed the idea on social
media and twenty twenty one. However, it was not until
December twelfth that a petition was officially filed with the
support of Star Based residents. SpaceX officials would say in

(19:36):
the petition quote incorporating Starbase will streamline the process required
to build the amenities necessary to make the area a
world class place to live or hundreds already calling at home,
as well as for prospective workers eager to help build
humanity's future in space Just remember where they're at. So

(20:00):
mister Musk just built a very very big wall around it,
if you catch my meaning, mister Frodo. Now, of course,
at the top of the show, I made a bit
of a passing comment about Greenland. It is no secret
that incoming President Donald Trump has expressed interest in Greenland

(20:22):
becoming maybe a territory of the United States. But did
you know we already have a US base Force base present.
The Danish territory of Greenland and its strategic importance for
the US and NATO have been making headlines recently. Largely
lost in the media for error, however, are the reasons

(20:42):
why Greenland is vital for North American security. One of
those reasons concerns the role of a crucial military installation
on the world's largest island. And I already forgot how
to pronounce it, Okay, Pidufic Space Base is the name
of the space space I had to look up the
ida pronunciation later in the story, like an idiot anyway.

(21:06):
US Space Force Chief Master Sergeant John Bentavenna has said
the Department Offense has unveiled a new Arctic strategy, underscoring
the region's critical importance toward national security and that of
our allies. Now Badoo fix sits on Greenland's northwest coast,
seven hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle. That's already

(21:30):
a strategic location and is likely to become even more
important if Arctic warming takes place and will allow more shipping, traffic, mining,
and maybe some other commercial activity, say some experts. The

(21:53):
sorry I had to call there, Dentavania continued, Maintaining a
strong presence and projecting power from the Arctic is paramount.
We must fortify it, ensure that we capitalize on our
unique position at the top of the world to safeguard
our interest and those allies, and to keep the aliens hidden.
I mean I may have added that last part. As

(22:15):
the Department of Defense's northernmost installation, the star base does
play a I knew I was gonna mess that up.
It does play a key role in missile defense and
satellite communication. The Space Force says the base's vantage point
helps enable quote space superiority unquote. Now, the base is

(22:38):
home to the twelfth Space Warning Squadron, which supports three
critical missions missile warning, missile defense, and space surveillance. To
carry out these missions, it uses a two sided solid
state phased array radar system which the unit operates twenty
four to seven, with an ability to detect ballistic missiles

(22:59):
that could indig the UN Canada. The squadron can execute
missile warning and missile defense missions if necessary. The unit
can provide early warnings via the Missile Warning Center in
the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or as everyone at
Christmas time knows, Santa's home of Norad. It also gathers
data on objects in orbits, which the unit sends to

(23:21):
the eighteenth Space Control Squadron at Vandenburg's Base Fource Base
in California, as well as several other DoD intelligence and
defense centers. A detachment of the twenty third Space Operation
Squadron also works out of the base. Attachment one, also
is called the Tracking Station, tracks and commands high priority
government satellites from its location, which is about three point

(23:42):
five miles southeast of the main base. Now, Detachment one
represents the northernmost station in the Satellite Control Network, a
global system that provides a wide range of services for
satellite programs from the United States and all governments, conducting
more than fifteen thousand satellite contacts every year. The tracking

(24:06):
station provides telemetry, tracking, and commanding the satellites that are
used for surveillance, communication, navigation, and weather. Now the base
actually has a very long history that predates the Space Force.
Constructed during the summers of fifty one and fifty two.
Dual Air Base as it was then known, came about

(24:28):
after Denmark and the United States signed a defense treaty.
Full Air Air Force Base became part of the Space
Force when the Armed Forces branch was established in twenty nineteen.
In twenty twenty three, it was renamed after the former
hunting settlement that was near the base's current location. Today,

(24:51):
the space base has about five hundred and fifty residents,
and with those fifteen thousand that their track, they are
about to possibly get I don't know, maybe just just
a little busier, very very very soon and.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
No assholes in space.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
Chinaese as Hope, Chinaese as Hope China is as ho.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
For.

Speaker 4 (25:34):
China has started building its second enormous satellite Internet constellation
in low Earth orbit. A long March five B rocket
lifted off from wind Chang Space Launch Center on the
north on the island of Hanan Monday, December sixteenth at
five Am Eastern carrying with it ten broadband space craft ALOFT. Now,

(25:54):
according to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, everything
went well, well we think anyway. The update describes the
satellites as huge in size, but does not give any
numbers for their mass or dimensions. It also doesn't specify
where the spacecraft were deployed, but we have that information

(26:19):
thanks to astrophysicists and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell and of course,
the US Space Force. McDowell wrote on X congratulations to
Space Force on the rapid cataloging of the ten Chinese
Internet satellites launched today. Now, the newly launched satellites are
the first Batchel gaal Wang, a broad band mega constellation

(26:43):
and Lower Earth or of it that will eventually consist
of nearly thirteen thousand spacecraft. Now, I do have an
interesting side note on this. I wonder if you'll hear
anything any astronomers complaining about any of these SATs or
what all. We just be the ones online on the
owned by Elon Now Gao Wang, whose name translate as

(27:06):
National Network, will be managed by a company called China Satenet, which,
of course the Chinese government established in twenty twenty one.
Another Chinese broadband mega constellation is under construction as well.
Kian Fan or one thousand sales, which will eventually feature
their own thirteen thousand satellites, and fifty four Quinn Fan

(27:30):
spacecraft have launched a date on three missions that lifted
it off last year. A Quinn Fan in Gao Wang
will be Chinese versions of basically SpaceX's Starlink Low Earth
orbit mega constellation, which is already providing service to people
around the world, and has announced today with the cyber
truck full of Starlink's operational insecurity and food, they will

(27:52):
be deployed in the Los Angeles area to help people
communicate and figure out what is going on now. Starlink
consists of about sixty eight hundred active satellites right now,
but that number is still growing all of the time,
and space Axis has launched more than eighty Starlink missions
last year alone, and eventually the plans are that that

(28:12):
mega constellation could have roughly forty thousand satellites now. Should
be noted on previous missions, the twenty three ton core
stage of the Long March five B that crashed back
to Earth in an uncontrolled fashion about a week after
lifting off, drawing criticism and humor from me from across
the space community. But this apparently did not happen on

(28:34):
Monday's gal Wang launch, according to Space News, as the
course stage wasn't expected to actually reach orbit because the
mission used an upper stage called YZ to deliver the
satellites to their desired destination. So it seems that the
cows at least got a little bit of a reprieve
from dying by rockets for at least another few days

(28:55):
or maybe even a few weeks. Now with that, I'm
going to do it an experiment here. Let me know it
to those listening live, and thank you all for everyone
that is tuning in tonight. Let me know if you
hear the music to this song. We will be back
in about oh three and a half four minutes once

(29:17):
I can actually start to play it. Here we go. Okay,

(30:39):
I apologize for that. Apparently that my experiment did not work,
So we're just gonna what was it, he said, Fuck it,
we'll do it live. Here we go. We'll just do
that and we'll get prepped up as I talk to
you randomly as I get my papers laid out for
the second part of the show, so welcome back. It

(31:00):
feels good despite that little bit of a hiccup to
be back. And for those that don't remember last year
twenty twenty four first episode, I set a goal last
year of trying to do twenty five episodes of the
show with the idea of never missing an episode, which,
considering my health and mental condition in the years prior,

(31:24):
it was actually looking back, kind of a very very
insane goal. I actually managed to do twenty three shows,
missing the last episode because of Christmas New Year break
and frankly they're not being a lot of interesting news
and I missed one at the beginning of October. I'm

(31:45):
actually quite happy I managed to do so well with
getting this show on the air last year, and it
is sometimes a struggle as it is basically a two
man operation, just the EP and myself, but we found
on the way we managed and we love love doing
the show. So I don't have any lofty goals this year,

(32:09):
just trying to keep you informed and entertain as possible
and take the video presentation to tier two as you're
hopefully witnessing some things tonight and I've saw some in
the comments earlier in chat. Thank you for all the
kind comments. There's actually more planned EP and I have
talked about a few things that we're going going to
add that will be really fun to do in the future.

(32:34):
But enough of that. Thank you for tuning in to listen.
It does mean a lie. We just to get back
to the good parts here. We like to make fun
of Blue Origins because of Bezos, but we're actually going
to refrain because I think this next story is actually

(32:56):
very important. New Glenn scheduled to lift off during a
three hour window that opens at one am, basically later tonight. Now.
The launch was initially scheduled for January tenth and then
January twelfth, but Blue Origin postponed it due to rough
offshore weather that could affect a rocket landing on the

(33:17):
company's recovery ship in the Atlantic. Similar weather concerns exist
for Monday's attempt, and Space Force officials forecast the chance
of a good lift off tonight are about fifty percent now.
The New Glen is three hundred and twenty feet tall,
which Blue Origin has been developing for about a decade,
and it does feature a reusable first stage. Lake SpaceX's

(33:39):
Falcon nine and Falcon heavy rockets and Blue Origin will
attempt to recover the first stage on in the morning,
landing the booster in the Atlantic Ocean on its landing
platform vessel one. That barge is a nicknamed Jacqueline, after
the mother of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. Now New

(34:01):
Glen won't deploy any satellites on Monday's mission, which Blue
Origin is calling n G one because it's New Glenn one.
At least Firefly has a hot host and has fun
with their mission names. Sorry getting sidetracked again, but the
rocket is carrying a payload, a test version of the
company's new Blue Ring spacecraft platform. Quote the Pathbinder will

(34:25):
validate Blue Rings communication capabilities from orbit to ground. Blue
Origin wrote any mission description last month. The mission will
also test its in space telemetry tracking and command hardware
and ground based radiometric tracking that will be used on
the future Blue Ring production space vehicle. The Path Founder
will remain on board New Glenn's second stage for the
duration of the expected six hour mission. It's tough to

(34:49):
predict what will happen tonight. Debut flights are often preceded
by delays and more delays, and then another delay and
It's rare for one to go off entirely without any
but n G one will be a great learning opportunity
for Blue Origin in any case, Jarrett Jones, SBP for
New Glenn said in the statement January eighth, it's time

(35:13):
to fly, and no matter what happens, we'll learn, refine
and apply that knowledge to our next launch. And with
that here at Lull Wonder, we really true hope for
godspeed to the Blue Origin team, and may it be
a glorious launch and I might might be able to

(35:38):
see in twenty twenty five an upcoming future launch, maybe
from my own backyard, and I'm not talking about my
spaceship for once. After a successful engine burned test in October,
main based Blueshift Aerospace is planning for its next big milestone,

(36:00):
a suborbital flight test toward the end of twenty twenty five.
The rocket company, located at Brunswick Landing in southern Maine,
was founded over a decade ago. In January of twenty
twenty one, the company carved its niche and space history
when it became the first to commercially use non toxic
biofuel to power its inaugural rocket prototype Stardust one point

(36:24):
zero now. According to BLUESHIFS CEO and founder Shasha Darry,
the rocket's secret sauce fuel contains an agricultural byproduct that
can be attained from farms around the world. I think
they mean cowshit or pigship anyway. After its first successful
test of the profausion technology, blue Ship now looks forward
to throwing its hat into the commercial launch market, developing

(36:48):
for faulsion technologies that reduce costs, and even opening its
own private launch site in Maine. At the end of
October twenty twenty four, Blue Shift achieved its biggest milestone
yet with the completion of a full duration burn of
the engine called Maravell Modular Adaptable Rocket Engine for Vehicle
launch quote. We had not one, but two successful engine tests,

(37:12):
and over the course of the last year we've done
a massive overhaul for our test infrastructure. We built our
flight ready thirty foot tall oxidizer tank and scalable test infrastructure,
which enables us to not only test starless Rogue today,
but also test lighter and lighter weight versions of our
maravel engine technology and a full vertical stack down the road.

(37:33):
And it is so hard to see that word and
not say Marvel. It's m A R e v L.
Every time I look at it, I swear, said, I
want to say marble anyway, they continued, We're also been
working with the Department of the Air Force to enable
us to broaden our market opportunities and sell our engines
as booster rockets, non toxic, reusable, non munitions rated boosters

(37:58):
to larger launch vehicle and they're excited about that. By
the end of twenty twenty five, they're looking to do
a low altitude launch of Starlus Rogue with paying customers
on board, and will probably be doing it from Spaceport America.
After that, really the engineering launch, although it will also
be revenue generating, they say, and and they will recover

(38:21):
the rocket. They will refly that vehicle to space once
we have the commercial launch license with the FAA. And
it's kind of interesting because the Main Technology Institute MTI
offered a grant of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
to help on the efforts to get our commercial launch license.
That I know already, I know what you're saying. Trust me,

(38:45):
I'm going to say all eglent to you biofuel. Yes,
the hippies apparently now have rockets too. I'm just as
concerned that said. I hope they don't hear about how
we are going to, you know, maybe mine on the
moon here in the incoming years. And while I was

(39:08):
making ah, I was semi making a joke about the
mining on the Moon from the hippies. A great article
from The Conversation came out a few days ago about
mining the Moon and some well, you know, questions to
consider now from the actual article. By the end of

(39:28):
this decade, nations and private companies may well be mining
the surface of the Moon. But as space becomes accessible
to more nations and corporations, we need to stop and
ask ourselves what commercial activities we want to allow, including
on the moon. Now is the time to create the
rules and regulations that will protect humanity shared future in space,

(39:49):
and then sure the Moon remains a symbol and inspiration
for generations to come. Number One, Why the Moon, because
it's there, that's set Why the moon, Well, let's face it,
China is trying to get there too, you think they're
going to be responsible. So all this has set in

(40:12):
motion a new lunar race with private companies competing to
figure out how to extract the Moon's resources, potentially selling
it back to governments in what we can call a
cosmic supply chain. Currently, all supplasmums face exploration are shipped
from Earth, making essentials like water and fuel eye wateringly expensive.

(40:35):
By the time a single liter of water reaches the Moon,
it costs more than an ounce of gold. But by
converting water ice on the Moon into hydrogen and oxygen,
we can refuel spacecraft on site. This could make deeper
space journeys, say oh, I don't know to Mars even

(40:55):
more feasible. The Moon's wealth of rare earth metals essential
for technologies like smartphones, also means lunar mining could ease
the stream on Earth's reserves. Private companies might end up
beating space agencies to the punch. A startup could be
mining the Moon before NASA even lands its next astronaut
and based it the way NASA moves. This is almost

(41:17):
a guaranteed now. As an editorial note, private will win.
And also, I'm thinking about that single liter of water
costing more than announce of gold, and I thought voss
water was expensive. Number two, Could mining change how we
see the Moon here from Earth. When material is extracted

(41:40):
from the Moon, dust gets kicked up. Without an atmosphere
to slow it down, the lunar dust can travel vast distances.
That surface material is space weathered and duller than the
more reflective material beneath. Disturbing the lunar dust means some
patches of the Moon may appear breater where the dust
has been kicked up, while other patches now all may
appear more dull if dust resettles on top. Even small

(42:05):
scale operations might disturb enough dust to create visible changes
over time. Managing lunar dust will be a crucial factor
in ensuring sustainability and mentally disruptive mining practices. Now editorial
note by me, this is I consider an actual interesting question,
mostly just about aesthetics, but something to consider. Could we

(42:28):
end up making the Moon brighter or maybe even duller
at night just by the movement of dust that we
kick up, probably by mining. It's an interesting, honest question.
Number three, Does Elon own the Moon yet? Or actually,
as they call it, who owns the Moon? Now? The

(42:48):
Outer Space Treaty in nineteen sixty seven makes it clear
no nation can claim to own the Moon or any
celestial body. Damn there goes my luck anyway. However, it
is less clear whether a company extracting resources from the
Moon violates this non appropriation clause. Two later agreements actually

(43:09):
end up taking up the issue. The nineteen seventy nine
Mood Treaty claims the Moon and its natural resources as
quote common heritage of mankind quote. This is often interferated
as an illicit ban on commercial lunar mining, but the
twenty twenty Artemis Accords allow for mining while reaffirming the

(43:30):
Outer Space Treaty's rejection of any claims of ownership over
the Moon itself. Now the Outer Space Treaty also notes
the exploration of space should benefit everyone on Earth, not
just the wealthier nations and corporations able to get there.
When it comes to resource extraction. Some argument this means
all nations should share and the bounty of any future
lunar mining endeavor. Editorial note by me those nations bitching, Oh,

(44:03):
I don't know. You could build your own goddamn rockets
and mine the Moon yourselves. You know, you don't get
participation trophies if you're still you know, living out of
bamboo huts, are still fucking goats. I'm just saying sorry
that one pissed me off a little. Number four. What

(44:26):
would miners? I didn't want to I'm not going to
do the joke. What would miners' lives be like.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
On the moon?

Speaker 4 (44:34):
Imagine you worked twelve hours straight in hot and dirty conditions. Well,
first off, we haven't even settled on how we tell
time on the moon yet, so I don't know how
you're working twelve hours. You are dehydrated, hungary, and overwhelmed.
Some of your coworkers have collapsed or been injured due
to exhaustion. You all wish that you could just get
another job with good safety standards, fair pay, in reasonable hours,

(44:59):
but you can't, Yeah, because you're stuck on the moon.
This dystopian vision highlights the potential dangers of rushing into
lunar mining without addressing the risk of workers working in
low gravity conditions bring health hazards. Lunar miners are more
likely to suffer bone and muscle loss, osteoporosis, renal and

(45:20):
cardiovascular damage, and impaired immunity. Exposure sorry, exposure to cosmic
radiation not only carries an increased risk of all cancers,
but also can affect fertility. Lunar miners will also face
prolonged isolation and intense psychological stress. They'll need good laws
and guidelines to protect the health and well being of
the space workforce. Regulatory bodies to enforce workers right and

(45:44):
safety standards will be far away on Earth or far
away on Earth. Miners may be left with little recourse
if as through work unreasonable hours in unsafe conditions. Now
you've noticed this is already three times longer than anything
else they've covered. British biologist Charles S. Cockle claims this
makes space tyranny prone. Powerful individuals could, he argues, be

(46:09):
able to abuse power who have nowhere else to go. Okay,
here's my editorial note on this one, and there it is.
It's basically about my unions. We need our space unions. Okay,
and Charles, you're British, fix your own yard before complaining

(46:29):
about space tyranny. Now, for the exploitation of the Moon,
it'll probably happen. But wonder how long before they're going
to start complaining about all the damage we're doing to
the moon. And you know the moon is moon is
going to go out of its orbits. Well, guess what

(46:50):
it's Sunday night, so let us work out that number
before we get really really worried. Now, for those that
do not know, the Moon has a so approximately seven
point three four to two times ten to the twenty
second power kilograms. If one were two mind millions of
tons of material, which is far beyond current capabilities, this

(47:13):
would represent an infotestinally small fraction of the Moon's total
mass one part. For instance, removing one million tons would
be like removing one part in seven point three four
ten to the twenty second power of the Moon's mass.
So I did the math for you tonight. One ton

(47:35):
mass removed from the Moon is zero point zero zero
zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero
zero zero one three percent. I probably miscalculate it because
I did not count twenty zeros in my head before
that thirteen. So one million or one ton of mass

(47:57):
is that infestestinally small. What I'm hearing is it will
take a very very very long time for that to happen,
and by then we'll have means to put Moon back
in orbit. But it does lead to an interesting question.
Waste management I think will actually be probably a bigger concern,

(48:18):
not just human waste from the miners, but waste from
the mining that will be an interesting change on the
lunar surface. And it's not just the Moon that is mind,
of course Earth is as well and should honestly be
mined even more. I mean, I got an idea, guys,

(48:41):
Let's treat Earth like she's a mom behind the circle
k taking in all the exploration that she possibly humanly can.
Why a mountain of hydrogen is lurking beneath Earth's surface
and scientists say that just a fraction of it could

(49:04):
break our dependent on fossil fuels for two hundred years. God,
I hate that term. Who the who the frat came
up with the term fossil fuels. Oh that's right, some
some dead now long dead German who by the way,
when he described fossil fuels, he was referring to coal,

(49:27):
not the liquid stuff anyway. New research suggests the planet
holds around six point two trillion tons of hydrogen and
rocks and underground reservoirs. That's roughly twenty six times the
amount of oil known to be left in the ground

(49:48):
known to be left in the ground, which is of
course one point six trillion barrels. But where these hydrogen
stocks are located, well, they let their location remains unknown.
Most of the hydrogen is likely too deep or too
far offshore to be easily excessed, if excessed at all,

(50:10):
and some of the reserves are probably too small to
extract in a way that makes economical sense. However, the
results indicate there are more than enough hydrogen to go
around even with these limitations. Jeffrey ellis a petroleum geochemist
at the US Geological Survey and lead author of this
new study. As mentioned, hydrogen is created through chemical reactions

(50:32):
in rocks, the simple as being a reaction that splits
water in the hydrogen and oxygen. He said, there's actually
dozens of natural processes that are capable of generating hydrogen,
but most of them generate just very small amounts. That is,
until recently, researchers didn't realize that hydrogen accumulates beneath Earth's surface.

(50:56):
Let me say that again. Until recently, researchers did not
realize that hydrogen accumulates beneath Earth's surface. Once again, why
do we listen to them on fossil fuels? Well, scientists

(51:24):
discovered a huge cache of hydrogen in West Africa, and
then another one in an Albanian chromium mine when they
decided to shift the paradigm. It's now clear that hydrogen
does build up in reservoirs in the Earth, and the
new study suggests some of those accumulations could be sizeable.
Hydrogen is projected to account for up to thirty percent

(51:46):
of the future energy supply in some sectors, and global
demand is expected to rise fivefold by twenty fifty. The
gas is produced artificially through electrolysis of water, where water
molecules are broken down with electrical currents. When renewable energy
is used, the product is called green hydrogen, and when
fossil fuels are used, it's known as blue hydrogen. The

(52:10):
benefits of tapping natural hydrogen are that it will not
require a source of energy at all to produce, and
underground reservoirs can hold the gas basically until it's needed.
We don't have to worry about storage, which is something
that we have to do with the blue or green hydrogen.
You want to make it when electricity is cheap, and
then you have to store it somewhere. With natural hydrogen,

(52:33):
you can just basically open a valve and close it.
Whenever you need it. You know, it's really going to
blow their mind. These scientists just wait till they actually
realize how oil is actually made. Now that said, we
do have Valentine's Day coming up very very soon. By

(52:56):
the way, I'm still looking for one low Sanna Morgan
call me anyway. Love is in the air, and some
heavenly bodies are getting into the act. New research suggests
that billions of years ago, Pluto may have captured its

(53:17):
largest moon, Karen, with a very brief icy kiss. This
theory could explain how the planet could snare a moon
that is around half its size. The team behind this
research thinks that two frigid worlds located in the Kuiper
belty ring of icy bodies located far from the Sun
at the edge of the Solar System, collected together billions

(53:37):
of years ago. Rather than mutually obliterating each other, the
two bodies reunited as a spinning cosmic snowman. These bodies
separated relatively quickly, but remained orbitally linked to create the
Pluto Charon system we see today. This kiss and capture
process represents a new theory of moon capture and cosmic collision.

(54:00):
It could also help scientists better investigate the structural strength
of frigid icy worlds within the Kuiper Belt. Quote we
found that if we assume that Pluto the planet and
Chiron are bodies with material strength, Pluto can indeed capture
Chirn from a giant impact. Team leader in University of
Arizona Lunar and Planetary Research at Dean Denton told space

(54:22):
dot Com, and I may have added Pluto the planet
as the planet anyway. The process of this collision captured
is called kiss in capture because Pluto and Chiron briefly
merged the kiss element before separating to form two independent bodies.
Most planetary collision scenarios are classified as hid and run
or grays and merge, meaning this kiss in capture scenario

(54:45):
is something entirely new. Quote. We were definitely surprised by
the kiss part of kiss and capture. There hasn't really
been any kind of impact before where the two bodies
only temporarily merge before re separating. Yeah, you know, when
I say kissing capter, the finished police are giving me
phone calls, but no Pluto the planet. Life isn't fair.

(55:12):
And with that thought now dancing in your head It's
time to grab a drink, find a seat by the campfire,
and lose yourself in the stars. January thirteenth full wolf Moon,
the January full moon, which always shines in or near
the stars of Gemini are Cancer, will occur on Monday,
January thirteenth at five twenty seven pm Eastern Standard time

(55:34):
to twenty seven for those living on the wrong coast
or twenty two twenty seven Greenwich meantime. At that time,
the bright red planet Mars will be shining just to
the moon's lower left. This full moon is known as
the wolf moon, Old moon, and moon after Yule. Huh,
EP loves when I have to do this next part.
The indigenous Ojabwa people the Great Lakes region call it

(55:57):
the getche Mantado geezis the great Spirit Moon, a time
to honor the silence and recognize one's place within all
of the great mysteries creature. The Cree of North America
call the January full moon. Avawachiknsis the frost exploding moon,
when trees crackle from the extreme cold temperatures. I hope

(56:17):
you're happy, EP, he's nodding. We do have some upcoming
launches tonight. About actually about a little over an hour
and ten minutes from now. We have ge Long three
coming out of China. January thirteenth. We have the aforementioned
Blue Origin launch, and we have Starlink twelve Dash four
January fourteenth, we have SpaceX Transporter twelve coming out of

(56:40):
Vandy January fifteenth, the aforementioned Blue Ghost and Starship seven.
January seventeenth, we have Starlink eleven dash eight. So that's
it for tonight's show. Thank you for tuning in when
and however you do. Special thanks to NASA, SpaceX, space
dot Com, Our Technica, NASA Spaceflight, Popular Mechanic, and more

(57:00):
a great information on the stories tonight. Stay tuned for
Sunday Night with Alan Ray, who I'm probably going to
have to talk with after this because I'm not sure
he realized the speaker does not have a life feat anymore.
Thank you to my executive producer as always for your
help and inspiration. I hope you enjoyed the show, learned
a little bit, and maybe had a laugh or two

(57:21):
as well. Is a pretty big place.

Speaker 5 (57:27):
It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
So if it's just us, it seems like an awful
waste of space.

Speaker 5 (57:41):
All right, when I was young, it seemed that I
was so wonderful, a miracle, Oh it was beautiful, magical.
Dat the birds in the trees will they'd be singing
so happy, oh joyfully, oh playfully watching me. But the

(58:08):
missability to teacher how to be sensible, logical? Oh, responsible, practical?
And then they show me word where recog you so
deep and doable? Or clinical? Intellectual cynical.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
There are times when worlds see

Speaker 5 (58:35):
The questions rot