Lost Wanderer Podcast 06/01/25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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 (00:12):
H m hm.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
M all fair promm.

Speaker 4 (00:23):
On Bia.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Today is a day from morning and remember Nancy and
I are gained the core but the tragedy of the
Shuttle challenge.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
The following program may contain false language, adult teams, and
bad attempts of human listener discretion. Is it vibe?

Speaker 4 (01:05):
What is President Trump's goal?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
What is his vision?

Speaker 4 (01:08):
He wants to put an American flag on marsin.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
A Gladidas Here the Lambers.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
I am your host Jeblef also known as a cosmic
bard over on X and this is the Lost Wonder
podcast or the first of June twenty twenty five. Happy
Sunday evening and welcome aboard the ACS serenade our lead
story tonight. In the early months of twenty twenty five,

(01:56):
the world watched with a mixture of anticipation and fatigue.
Starships face EX, a super heavy orbital system, had by
now become a more familiar presence on launch pads and
in the headlines, with the big questions still loomed, could
it survive re entry? Could it land could it even

(02:16):
be reused? The answers for a time came slowly. Then
came March fourteenth, The skies over Bocachica opened once again
as SpaceX launched the eighth flight of its Starship system.
Not an experimental hop or a suborbital teaser, but a
full stack test with the goal reaching near orbital speeds

(02:37):
and bringing both booster and ship home again. Now, as
we recall, the early phases of the flight were relatively smooth.
Booster separation occurred without incident, and the super heavy booster
returned to Earth in a soft landing at sea, another
promising sign that the lower half of this towering vehicle
was nearly dialed in the upper stage. Twenty eight would

(03:01):
tell a different story. Roughly forty nine minutes in the flight,
as Starship was coasting through the upper atmosphere on its
re entry trajectory, a single flash marked the end. Telemetary
data stopped, communications dropped, no debris, no wreckage, just silence
and a brief plume on tracking cameras. The calls discovered

(03:24):
in post flight analysis was subtle and devastating. A liquid
oxygen leak near one of the center engines during re entering.
That leak allowed hot exhaust gases to ignite areas of
the aft structure, compromising integrity and triggering a cascade of failure.
The engines shut down, the vehicles broke apart. Starship had

(03:47):
once again touched space, but not safety. The FAA, of course,
quickly imposed a pause. Per protocol, SpaceX was required to
submit a MISSHAP investigation report, detailing not only what failed,
but how it would be prevented in future launches. The
system was grounded and improvements were mandated, among them revised

(04:10):
shielding in the engine compartment and structural modification to limit
the spread of fire in case of another breach. By
May twenty second, after weeks of analysis and adjustment, the
FAA would approve a revised launch license, authorizing Flight nine,
another full stack attempt. Now there was something special about

(04:31):
Flight nine. It marked the first reuse of a super
heavy booster. Booster ten, which had previously flown, was rolled
back onto the launch moount, made it to Starship or
to Ship twenty nine, and prepared for its second mission.
That detail was quite easily overlooked, but it was a

(04:52):
really big milestone, albeit a quiet one, in SpaceX's vision
of fully reusable rockets, then we would see it. Launch
would occur on May twenty eighth. Again, the booster behaved admirably.
Stage separation was clean, and the super Heavy returned to

(05:14):
the golf with a targeted water landing. But once more
it was the upper stage that became the focus of concern.
Roughly thirty minutes into the flight, Ship twenty nine began
to behave radically Telementary showed a fuel leak, which soon
led to a loss of role control. The vehicle began spinning,
the remaining engine shut down prematurely, and just like its predecessor,

(05:37):
the spacecraft was lost, this time over the Indian Ocean. Now,
despite this setback, the test was still seen as kind
of a partial success. It was the longest flight duration
yet and the first time both booster and ship reached
their planned apigees, But the ultimate mission proving re entry
and controlled return of the ship fulfilled. The FAA, doing

(06:04):
its staying, responded swiftly. Within days, a formal misap investigation
was opened into the Flight nine failure. Until the results
of that review is submitted and approved, no further Starship
launches will be allowed. Fa officials emphasized that their focus
remains on public safety, technical integrity, and assuring that SpaceX
continues to mitigate risk with each iteration. For SpaceX, sadly,

(06:28):
this is familiar ground. The Starship program has never promised
quick success. It has built on a philosophy of rapid prototyping,
public failure, and iterative design. And it should be noted
that they kept their cameras rolling through their starlink uploads
on the ship way longer than I think any other
company would have, because while others hide their setbacks behind

(06:52):
corporate statements in concious pr SpaceX was tending to wear
its burn marks and plane view for all to see.
All of that, though, the pattern is becoming clearer. They
are getting closer. Booster landings are now routine, stage separation

(07:16):
seems to be stable. Late duration continues to increase, and
with each post mortem the list of failure points is
growing shorter. Now at the time of this report, Booster
twelve and Ship thirty are already undergoing checks and modifications
based on the latest findings. Upgrades the tank pressuration systems,
control thusters, and re entry sholding are expected the next flight.

(07:40):
When the FAA clears it may represent the closest yet
to a full mission success possibility, but the timeline now
rests with regulators and not the rockets themselves. For the
engineers on the ground in thousands watching around the world,
if not millions, this remains a delicate dance between ambition
and incountability. Starship story isn't just about propulsion or payload.

(08:04):
It's about the long road or to reliability, paid with metal,
missteps and minutes of silence at the edge of his face.

Speaker 5 (08:14):
As it stands now, two ships have flown and fallen
this year.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Neither really have made it home, but each left behind
their data and clues and a little bit of hard
earned progress. The next chapter will take flight when the
FAA says go for launch. Until then, Starship stands towering, tempered,
and waiting. Now, if the wreckage of Flight nine left

(08:42):
any doubt about SpaceX's resolved, it really didn't linger long,
because while one ship tumbled from the sky, another ten
rolled toward the pad. And the voice from the company's
heart doesn't waiver. It's actually growing louder. For Elon Musk
is not blinking. The new stated goal for twenty twenty
five year at the halfway mark, a staggering one hundred

(09:04):
and seventy orbital launches, not flights, orbital flights, Falcon nines,
Falcon heavies and hopefully starships, all lifting payloads toward the
edge of the Earth's gravity and quite it, honestly and
ambitiously from the ninety six launch of space ex achieved
and twenty three and in even more than the one
hundred and twelve expected for twenty twenty four. I said,

(09:29):
it's not just some sort of record, it's kind of
a statement that this company isn't aiming to be a
launch provider. It wants to be the infrastructure, the backbone,
if you will, of commercial space. This pace would mean
launching on average every two days, a rocket cleared and
climbed before the previous exhaust has even faded from the stratosphere.

(09:50):
It's the kind of cadence that would have seemed absurd
even five years ago, but today we can just kind
of simply pencil it in. And what's driving this push, Well, honestly,
it's just three engines. First Starlink, the in house satellite
Mega constellation demands constant replenishment and expansion. Over half the

(10:12):
twenty twenty four launches have already been dedicated to and
that's just the beginning. Starlink is no longer a side hustle.
It is an ecosystem. Secondly, commercial and government payloads with
ula fading are on space delayed in Russia really largely absent.
SpaceX has become sort of the default option anymore. NAS emissions,

(10:36):
private satellites, global telecoms are all cued up in the
launch manifest third starship itself. Every test, every booster hop in,
upper stage tumble counts toward orbital stats. These really shouldn't
just be considered experiments. They're checkboxes, and each one is
bringing Mars a little bit closer. But with the scale

(10:59):
comes challenge launch site availability, and probably something I think
that gets overlooked a lot is the possibility of ground
crew fatigue. Then you have turnaround logistics and of course
that amazing, wonderful thing that the government loves to do,
that specter of regulation. The real question may not be

(11:24):
if SpaceX can launch this, it's whether or not the
FAA can even keep up. Will pad infrastructure stretch to
the rhythm of the machines that SpaceX is creating, Will
a single failure derail cadence for up to a month.
No one knows what the outcome will be at but
the intent is clear. SpaceX isn't launching rockets anymore. It

(11:46):
really is just building momentum to the future, and like
all great machines, it doesn't ask for permission to do so.
It just accelerates full steam ahead. But as we have
SpaceX charting a path toward those one hundred and seventy

(12:06):
orbital launches, one might assume the stars are aligned literally
and maybe politically for the company's future. But on Earth,
as is normal, the terrain is more volatile because while
launch towers rise, sadly, we have what might have been

(12:29):
a friendly SpaceX nomination failed already merged. The former president
and current President Donald Trump is intending to withdraw Jared
Isisigman's nomination as NASA administrator should he return to office
in twenty twenty five. Now this is piece together from

(12:52):
some articles, so please forgive me for some of the
past tense here, But this withdrawal is a sudden reversal
and a bit of surprising one. Isaacman, as we know,
founder of Ship for Payments in the architect behind SpaceX,
is privately funded inspiration foreign polarist on missions. What's up
for nomination for the NASA post under the Trump administration.

(13:17):
A billionaire pilot with firsthand experience aboard dragon capsules, Isaacman
kind of symbolized the new frontier, private capital, public spectacle
and orbital ambition. Now he wouldn't have been or he
would have been the first commercial astronaut to lead the

(13:38):
Space Agency. Sadly, now that trajectory has been cut. Now
the reason though, We're not sure how much of this
is based on truth, but it makes logical sense. Unfortunately,
or some sources are saying that Isaacman's ties to Elon Musk,

(13:59):
who was once considered an asset in the field, may
actually now be considered a liability. Whereas musk political alignment
has shifted, his online presence has grown more controversial to some,
and his influence increasingly unpredictable. Now, I don't think it's

(14:20):
Isaac Men that failed. It may have just been you know,
he flew a little too close to the wrong star
for the right reasons. And as we know, NASA, for
its own part, remains called in a gravity well of politics.
The agency has weathered administrators with scientific backgrounds, political pedigrees,
and industry resumes, but it really had never seen a

(14:43):
candidate like Isaac Man, a man with the funding to
fly himself to orbits and the brand to sell the
vision globally. Now his removal for contention doesn't just stall
a nomination, I think raises some deeper questions. What will
NASA become under you know, future leadership, a tool of

(15:07):
national prestige, a steward of pure science. The timing, unfortunately,
is a little precarious. Artist missions are stacking up, commercial
low Earth orbit stations are in development, Mars planning while
distance requires some stable momentum, and above all, let's face it,

(15:29):
private players. You got SpaceX, Blue Ball, Origin, Sierra Space. Well,
they're reshaping the orbital economy faster than any government ever
could have dreamed of. And without clear leadership, NASA is
now risking becoming a bystander in the very theater it
sort of helped create. Well, that said, Esigmund wasn't everyone's

(15:53):
favorite choice. What he was was a bold choice, a
decisive of choice, someone who is ready to blend public
infrastructure with private fire. And sadly, now he's off the
board and somewhere they countdown clock Tixel and not for

(16:15):
a launch, but for a decision I could define the
agency's next decade. So where does this lead us? It
leads us to a question around who should lead NASA
into the future. But perhaps there's even a more ancient
question that is quietly resurfacing in the halls of science

(16:39):
and in the halls of NASA itself.

Speaker 5 (16:43):
Is their life.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
And is already here because we look at life sometimes
and a unique perspective.

Speaker 5 (16:56):
What is life? I know it's an electric word, it
means everything, But sometimes the smallest things show us the
signs of life.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
And this week researchers revealed the discovery of twenty six
previously unknown microvial species. Now where was this find Well,
it wasn't in the depths of the ocean. No, it
wasn't any Mars probe.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
Or anything like that. It is in one of the
most tightly controlled environments on Earth, allegedly a NASA spacecraft
assembly clean room. Let's pause a moment and let that

(17:43):
sink in. And as we do that, I want to
stop and thank everyone for tuning in. We have al Orty,
Rick raptor Sean. I think we have a few others
I may have missed. I apologize if I have missed you.
Thank you for tuning in the night. So this assets
spacecraft assembly clean room. It's a facility designed.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
To be as sterile as a surgical theater, where technicians
suit up in full body coverings and every surface is swabbed, scrubbed,
and sanitized to avoid contaminating space bound payloads. And yet
the quote Jurassic Park place found a way. And it's

(18:29):
not just ordinary microbes. These newly identified species belong to
extremophile families, organisms that thriving conditions most life finds uninhabitable heat, radiation,
chemical sterilizers, none of it stop them. In fact, many

(18:50):
of the microbes carry genes from that were resistant to
UV light, oxidative stress. It's even anti micro trubial agents. So,
in short, NASA's clean rooms had inadvertently become a program
ground for Earth's partiest survivors, and the implications are rippling outward.

(19:16):
Planetary protection protocols already what many would consider meticulous, may
now need to be re examined. If extremophiles can live
and possibly even adapt inside clean rooms on spacecraft components,
what happens when those spacecraft arrive at Europa and Solatus
or Mars and More importantly, if any of them make

(19:36):
the trip back home, could we unintentionally be seating other
worlds with Earth life and vice versa. It's not a
hypothetical anymore.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Now.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
This isn't the first time NASA has wrestled with forward contamination,
the fear of sending microbes to other planets, but it
may be the clearest reminder yet that zero contamination is
a moving target and the Earth's life is more resilient
and more invasive than we often will stop and realize.
But there's a strange poetry in this. We have spent

(20:14):
decades pointing telescopes outwards, designing rovers, building drills, and landers,
chasing biosignatures across late years, only to find new life
hiding in our own laboratories, not extraterreastural, but certainly extraordinary.

(20:34):
And as we have NASA's next missions preparing to punch
through icy crust or sore through alien atmospheres, the challenge
becomes not just finding life, but maybe also ensuring we
don't bring it with us. So if NASA's clean rooms
can't stay sterile, you might be wondering what hope does

(20:56):
the rest of Earth have? Well, we may have some
way to keep ourselves a little bit safe and at
least in some scenarios, and that is orbital lasers. President
Trump announced the selection of a US Space Sports general
to lead his proposed one hundred and seventy five billion

(21:19):
dollars billion with a B Golden Dome space defense initiative.

Speaker 5 (21:23):
It is a bit of a bold, expensive, and.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Okay, I'm gonna say it, a vaguely bond villain sounding
program aimed at turning Earth's orbit into a fortified shield
of deterrence. Of course, the critics are calling it basically
a reboot of Reagan Star Wars. Let's hope it's not
a Disney version of Star Wars, only this with more
gold plating because it's Trump and possibly more hats. Supporters, however,

(21:53):
say it's long overdue, a way to counter hypersonic threats,
defend satellites and established American dominance and highest of frontiers.
And of course, the name Golden Dome evokes both celestial
grandeur and well a little bit of you know, maybe
roofing supplies for a stadium down in the ash near
the astronom. But let's make no mistake, the ambitions are serious.

(22:18):
We are really talking satellite based on interceptors, directed energy weapons,
high speed data nets, and a command the control system
that could make NORAD look like a hobbyist basement project.
A commanding this initiative as Space Work General, whose identity
right now remains under wraps, but insiders hint that the
selection came from a shortlist of officers with operational experience

(22:40):
and missile defense, space surveillance, and likely a tolerance for
unconventional job descriptions. Now, it is hard to say at
this point how far the Golden Dome concept will actually go.
Congressional approval isn't guaranteed because all they do is sit
on their hands and do jack squat, and the technology

(23:00):
isn't cheap either. We still have some questions on space
law that remain. Let's say they're a bit murky on
whether you know, turning orbit into a weapons range violates
anyone's find print, especially when using lasers, because when it
was written it was mostly about missiles, so there's some
vagueness here. I said, the announcement still underscores a growing trend.

(23:26):
So while we had NASA grappling with micros, mars rovers
and leadership vacancies, motorization of space is marching onward, quietly
becoming policy, strategy, and budget. Let's face it, in twenty
twenty five, the space race isn't just about exploration anymore,
though it's still important. It's about control, visibility, reaction time,

(23:47):
and yes, the shiny orbital dome of invincibility. Someone in
a boardroom decided, well, you know what, this might just
be the next logical step. Time will tell, so from
one golden object in orbit to another. So this one
doesn't pristle with weaponry or carry a fence budget the

(24:10):
size of a small nation. This one just simply gazes
quietly and patiently. Yes, we're trucking the James Web Space Telescope,
still unfolding the universe from a million miles away, as
once again the liberty discovery that reminds us space isn't
just a front tier. It's a story book written in

(24:31):
light and shadow. So what did Web do this time? Well,
it turned its gilded mirrors toward a planetary system some
three hundred and seventy eight years away and revealed the
first ever detailed look at an icy outer edge, a
kind of alien hyper belt. The system, known as Beta Pictorus,

(24:51):
is already famous and astronomical circles for its youth.

Speaker 5 (24:56):
And pleasantry.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
It's about two twenty million years old, barely past infancy
and cosmic terms, and host at least two known gas giants. Well,
what Web found goes beyond planets. It found a frost line.
And no, I'm not talking about my line of ex wives.
This is more heavenly. This is a boundary in planetary
systems where temperatures drop low enough for volatile compines like water, ammonia,

(25:21):
and methane to freeze into solid ice. On Earth, that
frost line helped determine where are gas giants formed and
what kinds of comets and asteroids will now hunt and
haunt the outer Solar system. Now, to spot one around
another star wasn't just difficult, it's actually unprecedented. Using MIRY

(25:46):
the mid Infrared instrument, Web peered through the glare of
the central star and resolved the structure that was previously invisible,
a ring of cold, icy debris, faint, distant and sparkling
like diamond dust under just the right kind of light.
This outer disc likely holds the building blocks of comets,
frozen relics waiting to be jostled inward by unseen planets,

(26:07):
and like our own Kiper belt, it offers clues possibly
to how planets migrate, how solar systems stabilize, and maybe
even how water arrives on rocky worlds like ours. So
in a week field with orbital laser platforms and military
generals taking space supremacy, it's worth pausing to remember that

(26:30):
some satellites wear gold, not for armor, but for clarity.
James Webb doesn't barred the skies, it opens them. Now
let's hit our way to a little bit slightly different direction,

(26:53):
one that involves tickets, windows, and maybe a glass of
champagne or two. We have virgin galactic back making some news.
The Suborbital Spaceflight Company, which once promised to democratize space
for the wealthy, the daring, and the sadley Instagram obsessed,

(27:14):
has announced that it's on track to resume customer flights
in twenty twenty six. It's a cautious optimism. The company's
Unity space plane fleet has been retired, and its new
Delta class space planes, promising to be cheaper, faster, and
hopefully more durable, are still under development. But they do

(27:39):
have a plan, and this is somewhat clear ramp up
assembly in twenty twenty five, tests on early twenty six,
and then hopefully lift off again. They do have a
goal of a flight every week with six passengers riding
just high enough to see the curvature of the Earth
an unbuckle into microgravity for four minutes of cosmic euphoria. Now,

(28:01):
the company has had its share of turbulence delays, technical setbacks,
and fierce competition from blue origins own suborbital horror missions,
I mean ambitions. But if the timeline holds, Spaceport America
and New Mexico will once again rumble with rocket powered wings.
Will this reshape space travel?

Speaker 5 (28:23):
Probably not. Will it open the Cosmos? No, not really,
but it might change someone's perspective.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Just enough to matter and correct the timeline, And in
a world spinning fast between golden domes, ice debris fields
and oxygen leaking boosters, sometimes perspective is all we can
hope for.

Speaker 5 (28:49):
Fun times.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Right, when we come back from the break, we do
have some important China news, and we might even have
some dolphin discussion, and Einstein might be taking it up
uh in the wrong way here as well. When we
come back, we will be back in about three minutes.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
We said, that's the dog for songs of light, tuned
the hogs to the saddle line, spoken sparks and bog
and cold. Hoping someone cracked the mob. It build our
prayers with copper things from between the astral planes, set

(30:04):
the mouth the perfect.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Time, called sidelence side.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
What if the voice we missed wasn't far away, just faceless?
What if the answer came but not in works with
claims language, We're just patterns in the static, trying to
make the silence panic. We mapped the balls, we tagged

(30:43):
with glum, called the noise. We did no We chased
the problems with kids in the doors that open inwardley
and every accoll we assigned a ghost and match the you,
oh my god, it's in shape by Will. Sometimes it's Zabs.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
It's thatadies, it's Bill. We asked the scot.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Nap miss no.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Be shop.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
You can't come with you.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
The messing live behind the eyd beyond question.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
We can make.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
Signal because.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
And welcome back to Hope. Everyone was able to please
get a little bit of a drink refiller, whatever you
needed to do. I won't ask questions. I'll just leave
it up to my imagination because it's more fun that way.
So guess what time it is.

Speaker 5 (33:05):
It is time for everyone's favorite segments on the show, and.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
No assholes in space.

Speaker 5 (33:23):
China, China, China.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
I will never ever ever get tired of that. So
leader leading Offender this week is, of course, the Public
People's Republic of China. We decided that orbital presence isn't
just enough anymore. They want to leave their little fingerprints

(33:57):
all over the Solar system, of the Moon and even
the microbial frontier. Let's start with maybe perhaps the flashiest
move they did. On the third of May, China launched
ten WIN two, its first asteroid sampling mission Destination EP

(34:20):
what I know, okay, I, EPI get why you wanted
me to do this.

Speaker 5 (34:24):
This story now.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Come out. O Lawa I think is the name of
the asteroid. It's a tiny quasi moon orbiting near Earth.
The plan is bold survey land, drill a sample, and
return that payload by twenty twenty seven. It seems like
me on the dating scene, but we won't go there.
Oh and while it's out there, it'll swing by a
main belt comet for a bonus science run.

Speaker 5 (34:49):
It's a kind of mission that.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Screams, We've arrived.

Speaker 5 (34:52):
We're here.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
China's version of Ocyrus Rex meets Rosetta, just with less
transparency and a lot more nationalist press coverage. But here's
the kicker. They didn't just launch a probe. They launched
a statement that deep space is no longer the exclusive
playground of NASA, European Space Agency and a few dusty

(35:14):
Soviet legacies. China's here, and they brought a drill with them.

Speaker 5 (35:21):
But if you thought they.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
Were done, just say conquering these plant random flying rocks.
This way, we're gonna talk about what they have planned
for the Moon now. In a move that blends kind
of lunar ambition with a bit of Cold War nostalgia,
China has officially signed a deal with Russia to build
a nuclear powered lunar base. That's right, while the US

(35:46):
is still figuring out what Artemis suits will look like,
China and Russia, you know, if they have any things
that can help launch them after recent attacks, they're laying
down plans for a Moon based power plants, potentially leaving
America behind not just in an infrastructure, but an infrastructure
that may glow in the dark. The proposed reactor will

(36:08):
help support the International Lunar Research Station, which China envisions
as a permanent base for science mining in well, let's
be honest, geopolitical dominance. It's a play straight out of
the old Soviet handbook. If we can't outspend them on Earth,
let's bury reactors on the Moon. And maybe, just maybe,
if they get there first, they might get to decide

(36:31):
who plugs in next, Nolly. Not just our spreading tech
and nationalism across the Solar System, they're also spreading it
apparently something else. And we know, we just know love
when China creates new life, don't we. This month, researchers

(36:52):
announced the discovery of new species of bacteria aboard China's
Tea and Young space station. It thrives in mic it
clings to artificial services, and appears to be adapting to
life in space faster than some actual astronauts are. They're
calling it Bacillis Tian Young Genesis, a name that sells
Allie proud for something growing in place designed to be sterile.

Speaker 5 (37:14):
If you catch my meeting, mister Frodo.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Now, to be fair, finding space adapt at bacteria isn't
completely unheard of. The ISSS hosted its own microbial survivors.
But here's what makes this one notable. These bugs are
evolving in parallel, not just surviving, but possibly preparing for
life beyond Earth. So while nations posture and jockey for

(37:44):
service writes and sample returns, nature is already colonizing orbit
with the hands. I'm a Chinese, so they may not
dominate the stars yet, but between robotic asteroid minors, lunar
reactor agreements, and orbital biology experiments gone feral, they're kind

(38:04):
of making a pretty strong audition for the role of
a galactic empire. So we have to ask ourselves, is
it impressive?

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (38:16):
Is it concerning? Oh yeah? And does it peak assholes
in space? Definitely? Yeah, Because in a world where power
is measured.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
In gigawatts, payloads and petri dishes, the race for space
dominance is no longer theoretical.

Speaker 5 (38:34):
It is underway.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
If you stop and look, and if you don't believe me,
just ask the bacteria the Chinese are growing. I'm sure
we'll experience it soon. No, China can play chess with
the moon. They can mine the air asteroids and cultivate

(38:57):
cosmic bacteria and low worth. But the question is is
there any kind of different intrigue that's unfolding. I don't know,
maybe much further out where no nation's flag flies that
we know of, and maybe the Sun itself has become

(39:19):
a distant memory in the rear view mirror. And now
I ask this because this week astronomerser has they kind
of found something strange, a new object, faint, massive and cold.

(39:40):
And though I'm not talking about my ex wife again,
we have a candidate for dwarf planet status sitting somewhere
beyond Neptune and the scattered disc, that gravitational graveyard where
the rules of motion get really weird and names are
more myth than map. No, this isn't a repeat story

(40:04):
from two weeks past. Estimated to be between four and
eight times the massive Earth, this world, if confirmed, would
become one of the largest distance bodies we've ever discovered,
a planetary ghost with an orbit that could take thousands
of years to complete, and its presence might just spoil
the party everyone's been having for Planet nine.

Speaker 5 (40:25):
Though here I've lost a wonder program. We will always
refer to it as planet ten. For years, scientists have
chased signs.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
Of a hidden ninth or tenth planet, because Pluto is
a planet, a giant unseen shepherd keeping the outer Solar
System in check its existence with their eyes. Based on
the peculiar orbits of other objects, clumps, tilts, and clustering,
that suggests a massive presence pulling the strings in the dark.
But ironically or not, this new objects suggest a different possibility.

(40:59):
That's what you for calling it planet nine and plant
not planet ten from the get go.

Speaker 5 (41:06):
Fucking in DT.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Maybe there's no singular planet ten. Maybe the weirdness is
caused by many small ice worlds quickly skewing orbits and
scattering data like celestial static. Maybe we don't have a
king planet ten, but just a council of ghosts. Thankfully
this could be a blow to the planet ten crowd. Well,

(41:31):
once again here at the Lost Wonder Podcast, we're unmoved.
Pluto is and always will be planet nine. Not because
of mass or math, because well it is Sunday we
do to do math here on Kylorin Radio, but because
of memory. Because some worlds are more than their orbit,
their stories. They're symbols, tiny icy middle fingers to bureaucrats

(41:55):
and NDT with clipboards, go ahead and chart your new
little object. Name it whatever you want, analyze its long,
very lonely path. But know this, if you want to
dethrone plane at nine aka Pluto, you better pack a
bigger telescope and a damn good reason, because until these

(42:18):
stars say otherwise, Pluto still rains. Okay, I feel a
little bit better, got my little bit of a rant over.

Speaker 5 (42:30):
Let's move on a little back closer to home. Say,
let's let's go to the Moon. Let's visit the wonderful
floating object in our own orbits.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
No, that tide turner, that midnight use, that ever silent
witness to every rocket sliftalk and every astronomer's first wonder.
But even here, after centuries of observation, in decades of exploration,
the Moon still has secrets. And this week's scientists revisited

(43:04):
one of the strangest you ever stopped to think. Why
do moon rocks carry magnetism when the Moon itself has
no global magnetic field. It's a puzzle that's lingered since

(43:25):
the apollomissions. Some samples return from the surface, especially older ones,
containing strong magnetic signatures, implying they once formed in a
magnetic environment.

Speaker 5 (43:34):
But today the Moon is.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
Magnetically quiet, no field, no core dynamo of just dust
stone and echoes. So where's the magnetism come from? Well,
there's a new theory out here. Because science is nothing,
but theory is unproven. It suggests the Moon may have
once had localized, short lived magnetic fields generate it not
from within, but from violent impacts. When large asteroids lay

(44:00):
into the lunar crust, they may have heated minerals to
the Curry point and generate it temporary electrical currents strong
enough to magnetize nearby rocks. We really don't have a
freaking clue on this planet, but yet we act like
we do. So as we have new missions preparing to

(44:22):
drill land and build on the lunar surface, Understanding some
of these magnetic regions isn't just academic. It could end
up being practical. Strong localized fields could affect instruments, interfere
with navigation, or even maybe become resources in themselves. The Moon,
it seems, is still writing its own.

Speaker 5 (44:41):
Mystery novel just right now. It's still using invisible ink.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
Now. On a couple episodes past, we talked about K
two eighteen B a super Earth or maybe a mini
Neptune I'll let you pick which everyone you want to.
But it was suspended in a habital zone of a
red dwarf one hundred and twenty light years away. It
was a world that captured headlines and imaginations just a

(45:12):
few months ago when James web data hinted at something extraordinary,
possible biosignatures in its atmosphere, hence of dimethol sulfide to
compound that here on Earth is primarily produced by life
or a moment.

Speaker 5 (45:28):
It was thrilling, that kind of whisper that makes you
sit up and think what if.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
But now the whisper is quietly being walked back. A
new independent review of the data suggests those signals weren't
just faint, they were insignificant, little the threshold of reliability,
possibly artifacts noise masquerading a signal. The dream of DMS,
while bad and beer good here may have been just that,

(45:58):
a dream. In the cold light of second analysis, sciences
are scientists are now urging caution. They're not saying K
to eteen B is lifeless. What they are saying is
we haven't seen anything that can be trusted as proof.
So it's not a defeat necessarily. It's more about discipline,

(46:19):
and I applaud discipline and scientific research because that is
how science works. Not in declarations of something being true,
even though we know it's all made up bullshit, but
with double checks, not with these fantastic headline grabbing fireworks,
but in those sad, boring things that we often overlook
in the footnotes. But it lend leads to the next question.

(46:48):
If life is out there, if it's truly watching, listening, waiting,
how would we even begin to talk to it. The
answer may not be in the stars at all. It
may be swimming just off the coast. In a new

(47:11):
study blending biology, linguistics, and astrobiology, scientists are now suggesting
that decoding dolphin communication could be the key to one
of humanity's greatest questions. How do you talk to something
that doesn't think like you do? Go ahead, cue your

(47:32):
Hitchhiker's music in your own head, so long, thanks for
all the fish, all of that. Go ahead, get it
out of your system. I get it. I was tempted
to play the music. But you have to remember, dolphins,
like aliens not named me, don't share our environment. They

(47:52):
don't write, they don't build rockets, but they are smart.
They live in tight knit communities. They teach, they mourn,
they invent, they get high off of pufferfish, and most importantly,
they speak not in words, but in complex whistles, burst pulses,
body postures, and patterns. We still barely understand. It's not

(48:16):
a language that can easily be translated. It's a logic
we haven't yet cracked. But if we could, if we
could find the syntax, the meaning behind the sounds, the
structure beneath the songs, that might be more than a
breakthrough in marine biology. It might be a template for
when we make first contact. Because when we imagine speaking

(48:37):
to aliens, we tend to assume we'll teach them our
language or they will teach us theirs. But what if
real intelligence doesn't care for nouns and verbs? What if
it communicates through shapes, vibrations, electrical pulses, or frequencies like
dolphins that carry both meaning and emotion. Now, this research

(48:59):
isn't the necessarily suggesting dolphins or aliens, though.

Speaker 5 (49:02):
It doesn't disclude it.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
I may add they are the closest thing we have
to mind, shaped by different forces, in a different medium,
with a different way of experiencing the world. Learning to
talk to them is more than an act of curiosity.
It's actual, viable scientific practice. It's a rehearsal for the
day radio telescope captures a true, real signal onemost structure, repetition,

(49:27):
and intent. But when that day comes, it won't be
in English or Math, or, much to Vincent's chagrin, Shakespeare.
It will be the unknown asking a question. And if
we've already learned to answer the call of the dolphin, maybe,
just maybe, we'll be able to answer the call of

(49:49):
the cosmos. Now get your drinks ready, because we are
about to go onto a intergalactic Kegger.

Speaker 5 (50:06):
A bit of a story here.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
This week a team of theoretical physicists proposed a radical
new framework, a possible theory of quantum gravity that evalidated
could finally unite general relativity and quantum mechanics. And yes,
it would actually mean einstein drink was mostly wrong, not entirely,

(50:30):
mind you, but not even in spirit, but in details.
But we all know Einstein's drink. Theory of general relativity
has held up beautifully for over one hundred years. It
really does explain orbits black hole's gravitational waves, almost all
of it It describes how matters bend space and how

(50:51):
time warps in the presence of mass. But then when
we get to the teeny we need a little bit
of the smallest of scales, the quantum realm, relativity falls apart.
Gravity doesn't play nice with uncertainty, it doesn't quantitize, and
the physics community has been chasing a unifying theory, a
quantum gravity ever since Einstein's death. String theory tried, loop

(51:20):
quantum gravity tried. All have come close, but none have
fully worked yet. But this new theory, still in its
earliest of stages, suggests a different approach. It proposes a
space time itself is an emergent phenomenon, a kind of
holographic pattern generated by deeper quantum processes. In this view,

(51:43):
gravity isn't a fundamental force. It's a side effect, a
consequence of entanglement, symmetry and information flow. And if that's true,
then every we think, everything we think of as reality,
the fabric of space, the polar gravity, even the ticking
of time, isn't fundamental. It's built for something deeper, and

(52:08):
it's kind of a theory Einstein may have actually loved,
or may have you know, loathed either one or maybe
a little bit of alreadys embrace the power of van here.
So there's a strange beauty in this idea that gravity,
the thing that holds galaxies together, the force that shapes
stars and launch planets, might be kind of a cosmic illusion,

(52:31):
stitch together by something even stranger. Or maybe the universe
isn't like a machine. Maybe it is a story, one
that we're still learning to read age by quantum page.
And before we close tonight's show, do yourself a favor.

(52:52):
Take the time, step outside, leave the screens, grab your
favorite drink, coffee, bourbon, moonshine whatever. Until your head back,
let the sky remind you just how relatively small we
are and how big that makes the universe. Because it
is time for the Lost Wonder star gazing report, the

(53:15):
great celestial Waltz continues overhead, and while the headlines is
maybe chasing Mars missions in quantum gravity, the night sky
still spins for the patient, the curious, and even those romantics.
We do have some planetary highlights. Let's start on the
low of the horizon. Mars is creeping higher each morning,
glowing faintly red in the pre dawn east. It's not

(53:38):
much to look at right now, more of a promise
than a spectacle, but it is on its way back
to prominence. Then we have Jupiter, the old King, is
slipping towards its solar conjunction. If you're lucky and have
a clear, unobstructed eastern horizon, you might catch it just
before sunrise early in this period, but soon it will

(53:59):
dis peer behind the Sun for weeks. We also have Saturn,
slow and deliverate, rising in the southeast around three thirty
am and climbing steadily. Not yet at its best, but
it is worth its watching. It is gearing up for
a major shower or showing later this summer. No bright

(54:20):
evening planets dominate the post sunset sky for now. It's
that time of year when well the stars are reclaiming
the heavens.

Speaker 5 (54:27):
But we do have some moon news.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
On June sixth, we welcome the new Moon, ushering in
several nights of perfect darkness, perfect or your deep sky viewing.
No lunar globe to steal the stage, So go out
and hunt for bink galaxies, track down nessa objects, or finally,
point that dusty telescope toward the Virgo cluster or it
won't be long before we're doing our next show, and

(54:50):
I'll have to speak Native American names for the full
moon that's coming on about the twenty first. Yay, we
do have some summer constellations that are assembling for the
real show. May not be in the planets, but in
its backdrop. Around midnight, the summer triangle climbs high Vega
and Lira. Out here in Aquila and the Nab and Segis,

(55:13):
they stitch together a sky of stories stretching down the
milky ways rivers, which now becomes visible in dark skies
from horizon to horizon. Now you will have to escape
the city lights, but when you do, you'll see it
our galaxy scene from within. Look low in the south
and you'll also find Scorpius dragging gets curving tail behind

(55:33):
the bright red part of anterras. So, whether it's broadband
silence or champagne fueled orbit hopping billionaires, the sky above
it's not slowing down. So watch the skies and maybe
just maybe wave at something streaking eastward at seventeen thousand

(55:55):
miles an hour. That's it for tonight's show. Thanks keep
for tuning in whenever and however you do special thanks
to NASA spacexpace dot Com, Ours Technica, NASA Space Flight,
Popular Mechanics, and more for the stories and inspiration Tonight
with Me at the helm, the EP setting course, and
the ship's computer in the back was spring Star, mapsterro Static.

(56:18):
This is the Lost wander of podcast until next Orbits.
I hope you enjoyed the show, learned a little bit
along the way, and maybe had a laugh for two
as well.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
It is a pretty big place.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
It's bigger than anything anyone who's ever dreamed of before.

Speaker 5 (56:42):
So if it's just us, it seems like an awful
waste of space, all right.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
When I was young, it seemed a love was so wonderful, miracle,
Oh it was beautiful, magical, and Dart the bird in
the trees, what they'd be singing so happily, oh joyfully,
oh playfully watching me