Lost Wanderer Podcast: 09/21/25

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. H m hm as
on all fair Man.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
On Bia.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Today is a day from morning and remember Nancy and
I are gained the core, but the tragedy was a
shadow challenge.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
The following program may contain close language, adult teens, and
bad attempts of human.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Listener discretion as advised.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
What is President Trump's goal? What is his vision? He
wants to put an American flag on March.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Brithin Anguality days here at Gon have landed.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
I am your host Jeblef also known as a cosmic
bard over on x and this is the Lost Wonderer
podcast for September twenty one, two thousand and twenty five.
Happy Sunday evening, and welcome aboard the acs Serenade. We

(01:53):
start tonight talking about that magnificent red planet. Mars has
always been more than a world. It has been a mirror,
a place where sometimes we cast our fears, our fantasies,
and our questions about what it means to be alive
in the universe. For centuries, we've searched its ruddy face

(02:17):
through glass and shadow. Some swore they saw canals, vast
work of alien engineering. Others imagine cities buried under dust storms,
or creatures watching us the way we watch them. And
each time our science sharpens its gaze, Mars would retreat,
revealing itself as more barren, more silent than we had

(02:39):
hoped and feared. But the silence has never been complete.
Even in its stillness, the planet keeps offering hints and whispers,
the possibility that once, once long ago, it was alive. Today,
those whispers echoed from Hezo Crater. Now, this crater is

(03:01):
no ordinary depression. Billions of years ago, it was a lake.
A river flowed into it, carried sediment and carved a delta.
And that delta, clay minerals were formed, the same kind
of clays that here on Earth preserved the traces of

(03:21):
ancient life. When NASA chose this crater has a landing
site for Perseverance, it wasn't just because the terrain looked interesting,
though it did. It was because this was a place
where water had pulled, lingered, and left behind the chemistry
of habitability. Now, nearly five years into its mission, Perseverance

(03:45):
has turned back to the crater and it's turned it
into a library. It's drills, its scrapes, its peers, with
its suit of instruments. Each rock, each core sample, was
a page in a story that might stretch across billions
of years. And the story it's telling is both familiar
and astonishing. This crater was once a place where life

(04:09):
could have existed. Now recently that story sharpened into something
even more provocative. Some of the samples Perseverance had studied
showed chemical signatures that scientists called quote possible biosignatures unquote.
Now these aren't fossils, not the important imprint of microbial

(04:30):
matte preserved in stone. They are but patterns in the
chemistry certain molecules arranged in ways that on Earth are
almost always connected to biology. Now this is not proof,
not yet, but it is a whisper that is louder
than any we have heard before. Now, the rover itself

(04:53):
cannot confirm it. Its instruments can only detect and suggest.
To know for certain, the sample it has collected and
carefully sealed. Tubes of containing Martian rock and soil must
come back to Earth. They must be placed in laboratories,
examined by the most sensitive tools we have tested against

(05:13):
every alternate explanation. This is the burden of proof and science.
Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence, and so we must wait.
The Marsh sample return mission, designed to fairy Perseverances treasures home,

(05:34):
is still years away. Technical hurdles, political debates, budgetary uncertainties,
all of them have been delaying the timeline. It may
not even be until the twenty thirties that we finally
hold these Martian relics in our hands. Imagine that the
answer to one of humanity's oldest questions could already be
packed and waiting, that it will sit in the dust

(05:57):
of the crater for another decade before we can possibly
we know that. Said, even now, the evidence reshapes how
we think about Mars. The rocks Perseverance have studied revealed
a world that was once warm, once wet, once alive,
with the same chemical possibilities that spark biology here on Earth.

(06:21):
The delta preserved in jazer Row is more than geology.
It is a fossilized environment, a snapshot of habitability written
across stone. And if Mars was habitable once, the question
is not whether life could have existed there. The question
is whether it did, and if it did, what the

(06:42):
hell happened to it? Did it thrive in shallow waters
only to vanish when the climate turned in the lake stride?
Did it retreat underground, clinging to warmth near volcanic vents?
Or did Mars harbor nothing more than potential, a canvas
that was never painted upon, that was never completed. Now

(07:05):
the power of these questions lie in what they imply,
because if Mars had life even once, then the sparkle
biology is not unique to Earth. It is not a
miracle confined to our oceans and skies. It is a process,
a pattern, a consequence of chemistry when the conditions are right.

(07:28):
And if it happened twice in one solar system, Earth
and Mars, then it is almost a certainty of happening
across the galaxy again and again and again in places
we have not yet touched or maybe even seen. Scientists,

(07:50):
careful as ever, remind us of caution. They warn us
a false positives of chemical processes that mimic biology without
being alive. They point to the complexity of organic molecules,
how easily they can form in non biological ways. Oh,
this caution is not cynicism, Its discipline. The only way

(08:11):
to distinguish dream from reality. But even in their measured words,
there is an undercurrent of wonder from Perseverance is not
chasing ghost, it's uncovering evidence, step by careful step that
Mars just maybe is not the dead world we once thought.

(08:33):
It is a world with a past, a world that
may still hold the traces of something more. And the
very fact that we stand at this threshold, that we
are even entertaining the possibility of Martian life with data
in hand, marks a turning point. When the day finally comes,

(08:56):
when the sample tubes leave the crater, hitch a ride
in the orbit, and return, we may find ourselves confronting
a truth bomb that is both humbling and exhilarating. That
life is not rare, not fragile, and more importantly, not
an accident. That it arises where it can, whether on

(09:19):
Earth or Mars or countless worlds beyond. Until then, Perseverance
rolls on through dustorms, across the crater, rims, past the
shadows of ancient river beds. It continues its patient to work.
With every drilled core, every sealed vial is well another

(09:40):
fragment of an answer just waiting to be assembled. The
search for life on Mars is not about green men
or lost civilizations, though either would be awesome. It is
about a whisper and stone, a signature in chemistry, a
memory preserved in minerals, older than any dream we've ever had.
And in that whisper there is a promise that we

(10:04):
are not alone, that life is and yet at the
same time is not a miracle, but rather a chorus,
one that may already be echoing across the stars. And

(10:30):
as we think of this and as well, space race
is heating up to not just get to the Moon,
but eventually Mars, we are reminded. For decades the United
States has been the unquestioned leader in space, from Apollo

(10:50):
to the Shuttle, from the International Space Station to the
steady cadence of Mars rovers. It has set the tempo
in the standards and probably the expectations of what a
space faring power could and usually should be. But now
a new report has sharpened the horizon. China is no

(11:13):
longer chasing America's shadow. It is walking alongside us, and
that analysis is quite blunt in terms of launch capacity
in lunar ambitions and long term strategy. China's space program
is on track to equal and in some cases the past,
the capabilities of the United States government. Its tiong Yong

(11:38):
Space station is not a blueprint. It's fully operational, with
crews rotating regularly. Its robotic missions of the Moon have
already returned samples. They've landed rovers and scouted terrain where
talkin'auts may one day walk. And as plans for Mars
are not a dream schedule on paper, they are quite active.
They are quite funded somehow and aligned with the government

(11:59):
willing to move quickly and not at a snail's caution.
For the US, the morning is quite clear. Leadership in
space is no longer given. They cannot rest on their laurels.
It must be defended. A separate report underscores the point
with sharper urgency, calling it do or die. Time for

(12:23):
the premiency of America in space. Now. I know some
will look at this as with concern of it all.
You know, it's just pretige, prestige. No, No, it's influence,
the power to set the rules for the next era
of exploration. Who would build the infrastructure on the Moon,
Who will define the standards of communication, safety, governance and

(12:47):
deep space? Will we all be speaking partial in Chinese,
Just like the episodes of Firefly, who will inspire the
next generation to look upward and see their nation reflected
in the stars. Admittedly, America is not standing still, artemist
is preparing for its next steps. Partnerships with private industry

(13:09):
are multiplying with almost weekly and the investments in new
rockets and spacecraft remains vast. But outside of one individual entity,
the cadence is uneven, slowed by politics, budgets, and a
system where momentum often alters between administrations. China, by contrast,

(13:29):
is moving with a largely unified vision. Every success builds
on the last, each mission a stepping stone toward the next,
and as time goes by, we've seen less cows being
hit by depri This is not the Cold War redo,
not a replay of flags and footprints on the moon
that would be awesome to see. It is a contest

(13:52):
of vision and more importantly, of will, and it is
one mistakes far beyond national pride. If the United States falters,
it risks more than losing a race, at risks losing
the ability to shape the rules of humanity's expansion into
the Solar System. For now, the race is not decided,

(14:15):
but the finish line is no longer Americas to claim unchallenged.
On the far side of the sky, China is starting
to run stride for stride, and every launch, every rover,
every step toward the Moon is a reminder to that
in space premisey is a prize that must be earned
and then defended again and again. But we do have

(14:41):
some good news. In the world of rockets. Failure, thankfully,
is not always final. Every launch carries risk, every countdown
holds its breath in well, sometimes the sky answers with
silence instead of fire. Twenty ninth, Fireflies Aerospace Alpha rocket

(15:02):
tried to climb but stumbled. It was set back, the
kind that well, kind of a setback that can shake
confidence in Paul's momentum. But now here we are months later,
the verdict is in. Firefly has been cleared to fly again,
and you know what that means.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Mm hm.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Now Alpha is not a giant rocket. This is a
small launch vehicle designed to lift modest payloads in the orbit.
But in the crowded market of spaceflight, small can actually
be powerful. As each year passed, the satellites at getting
smaller and shrinking constellations are multiplying, and the demand for flexible,

(15:45):
reliable launches is only growing. Firefly's promise has always been
to meet the demand with agility, to offer a ride
per missions too small or too specialized for the industry heavyweights,
And when alp IF failed in April, the question was
not just technical but existential. Could a smaller company like

(16:06):
Firefly absorb the blow? Would customers start to look elsewhere?
Would those wonderful government regulators tighten the leash? Each delay,
each investigation, stretches thin the resources of a company still
fighting boards place amongst the giants. The clearance to fly

(16:27):
again is more than a green light. It is a
bit of a lifeline. Means the company has addressed the issues,
satisfied the scrutiny, and has earned another chance to prove itself.
Though it's Firefly, it's Morgan. They never have to prove
anything to me. The next launch will not just be
about payloads and trojectories. It'll be about trust. Each successful

(16:49):
flight builds credibility in each mission, well step closer to
stability in an unforgiving industry, And we must remember that
the stakes are high because competition is relentless. Space X
dominates headlines with Starship, China is pushing forward with state

(17:11):
backed intensity, blue origin courts contracts with its very very
deep pockets. So companies like Firefly don't have the luxury
of endless failures are boundless funding. It kind of has
one rocket, one path forward, and the determination to keep
flying to be cleared again. It is to be reminded

(17:34):
of the most fundamental truth in spaceflight. Resilience matters almost
as much as the technology, And of course Firefly is
not promising perfection, but it is promising persistence, and persistence
is sometimes the only way a small flame can survive
in the shadow of the roaring giants it is facing.

(17:59):
So for Firefly Aerospace, the next appal launch is not
just another mission. It will be a declaration that we
are still here, We are still climbing, still daring the
sky to let us through. As long as Morgan is
on the broadcast and you did already. There is a

(18:24):
rhythm to space eexis presence in the sky. The towering
drama of Starship grabs the headlines, that gleaming stack of
stainless steel roaring upward, daring physics to hold it together,
and then almost quietly by comparison, Flight nine rockets keep
rising week after week and almost day after day, carrying

(18:44):
satellite's cargo and even military constellations in the orbit. In
the same company, in the same movement, you find a
dream of interplanetary flight and the hard, steady grind of
contracts that make it all possible. Now, the latest chat
after in this dual story begins with Starship. It's most
recent flight, though hailed as a success in reaching new milestones,

(19:07):
carried a bit of a blunt lessen some of the
ship's heat shield tiles thousands. You know, there's thousands of
ceramic plates that must hold through the white hot fury
of reentry. Diggoty, We're not sealed well enough. Gaps allowed
plasma to penetrate HM and for a vehicle designed to

(19:28):
be reusable, that's a bit of a flaw that cannot
be tolerated. SpaceX itself admitted to point plainly, quote we
need to seal the tiles unquote simple words, but in
practice one of the most complex engineering challenges currently in
human space flight. I mean, Sparship is not just another rocket.

(19:49):
It is a ship meant to land with the Moon
on Mars and maybe even other worlds one day, and
for that to happen, it must return safely from the
hell that is Earth's atmosphere. Each launch, each flight is
a well, it's a test and a teacher. The lesson
this time was about resilience, not an ambition, but in

(20:10):
the fine details of material science. The difference between his
safe return and the ship possibly be torn apart. And yes,
the engineers will pour over tiles. You know, the company
as a whole, it has to keep moving. Over on
another patty, Falcon nine carried the first twenty one satellites

(20:31):
of a brand new US military constellation. Now this is
not starlink, though it does use a lot of similar technologies.
It is an advanced network designed for defense, a web
of eyes and ears in orbit, giving the military faster,
more secure communications, and broader awareness. For SpaceX, it was

(20:52):
another reminder that their rockets are not just vehicles expiration.
They're actually part of the infrastructure of power. The military
constellation actually marks a shift. Not long ago, satellite launches
of this scale would have been done, you know, with
the works of large companies, you know like United Launch Alliance,
you know that have built on decades of government trust.

(21:14):
Now SpaceX shoulders that task, perving that private industry can
deliver not only at scale, but have the pace demanded
by national security to decide of how fully the company
has embedded itself into the machinery of state craft, a
contractor as critical as any defense supplier on the ground.

(21:36):
That said, not all payloads serve the sword. On the
near horizon, another Falcon nine prepares to carry the Interstellar
Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP in the space. This
NASA mission will not orbit Earth nor even settle near
the Moon. It will fly outward to a position a

(21:57):
million miles away where it can observe the boundary between
our our solar system and interstellar space. IMAP's task is
to measure the particles, the winds and shocks that define
the edge of the heliosphere, that bubble of charged particles
our sun throws against the galaxy. Now, IMAP is science
and the grandest tradition. It's not flashy, it's not commercial,

(22:21):
but it could be very deeply provound. It will help
us understand not just where our solar system ends, but
how stars shape their surroundings, how cosmic radiation flows, and
how fragile bubbles like ours might protect life elsewhere. It's
kind of a mission that. Oh, if I'm being honest,
echoes voyager a reminder that beyond contracts and competitions, space

(22:45):
fight is about curiosity. Now, together these three threads reveal
a bit of paradox that is SpaceX. It is a
company chasing Mars with one hand, securing military dominance with
the other, and somehow grew a third arm and is
lifting science into the void with the third one. Its

(23:07):
identity is not singular. It is equal parts dreamer, contractor
and courier for the imagination. That's a good thing because
that balance is not accidental. And while Starship right now
maybe consuming headlines, the Falcon nine is paying the bills,

(23:29):
the fence, contract stabilize the book. Yeah, starlink is nice.
You know science missions, Well, they give it a little
bit of that credibility. And each success, each launch, gives
a company the room to keep pushing the improbable dream
of stainless steel towers bound to other planets. Now, SpaceX

(23:49):
is often traded as a monolith, one company, one identity,
but in truth, it is more of a beautiful chorus,
a chorus of ambition, pragmatism and the discovery, and right
now that chorus is singing three songs at once, and
it's kind of a sweet tune. Now, one of SpaceX's

(24:23):
sister companies, if you Will, is bringing its own little
thing to life in the sky. So the sky is
feeling with satellites. Every clear night. You can see them
if you're patient enough, chains of moving lights across the stars,
a man made constellation brighter than anything nature has offered

(24:46):
at this close to the surface. They belong to Starlink,
SpaceX's Internet in the Sky project, and they are multiplying rapidly,
and recently SpaceX paid one point seven a billion with
a B dollars or a slice of spectrum, the invisible
real estate or radio frequencies. Oh this isn't some you know,

(25:11):
weird curiosity. It's kind of important because spectrum means more capacity,
more customers, and more revenue. It should be a signal
to everyone else that's Starlink is not just some cute
little experiment. It is now infrastructure expanding aggressively to cover
the globe, from deserts to oceans, from villages to war zones.

(25:35):
And the promise is simple Internet anywhere, anytime, for communities
that may be cut off from fiber lines for ships
crossing the ocean. How about soldiers in contested terrain that
promises revolutionary but also, as most revolutions, they're not always

(25:58):
clean either. And I know it's mentioned almost every time
there's a Starlink story, that streak that crosses that night.
Astronomers have complained of ruined images and once pristine exposures
are being scratched by moving points of light. And even recently,

(26:23):
one of these streaks landed in a place that was
more politically frault than a telescope's eyepiece. It was an
orbital photograph of a secret Chinese air base. Yep, a
Starlink satellite crossed the frame, a cosmic photo bomb, if
you will, inserting itself into a delicate game of surveillance.

(26:49):
It was a gentle reminder that in space, whether you
know it or want to admit it, everything is sort
of connected. A network built to sell broadband can now
become a factor in geopolitics. The satellite intended to beam
the latest Netflix movie into a cabin in Alaska can
alter the quality of reconnaissance thousands of miles away. We

(27:12):
have to remember the sky has no physical borders, and
when you fill it with thousands upon thousands of machines,
sometimes consequences will spill into directions no one plans. Now,
let's set for SpaceX. This expansion is a triumphant for scientists,
depending on which spectrum you fall on, it's more of

(27:34):
a frustration, and for governments it's kind of a tool
and a threat. The night sky has always been a
canvas of wonder. Now we can also see it as
a grid of commerce, politics, and yeah, there's unintended photo

(27:56):
bomb consequences. Now, when most people happen to, you know,
picture rockets, they imagine exploration. They dream of astronauts again

(28:18):
or for the first time, depending on your point of
view on the Moon, probes of all sorts on Mars,
some good, some bad, maybe even telescopes unfurling in the dark.
But leave it to the United States Air Force to
imagine something different. Rockets not as explorers, but as couriers,

(28:47):
a fleet that can deliver supplies anywhere on Earth faster
than any airplane bypassing ports, runways, and borders. Yes, I
know already, you're already pitching futur rama with their cargo delivery.
And you're not not far off, because the vision has
been quietly developing for years. Under the banner of rocket

(29:09):
cargo delivery. Question is who's Fry and who's Leela? And
to that effect, two new names have been added to
the roster of company's task worth making this real Blue
Origin and and Durall. Now, of course, you know Blue
Ball's origin is a familiar one to listeners of this program.

(29:31):
It's funded by Jeff Bezos, and it has long promise
grand futures of orbital habitats and lunar landings behind their
lossy visions. It's also built solid engine suborbital flights and
a growing stable of contracts. Even if they do occasionally
launch the six or seven bembos of the edge of space.
But for the Air Force, Blue Origin offers experience, resources

(29:53):
and the promise of scaling rockets large enough to move
serious cargo and dural is a bit of a contrast.
It's a newer defense company found it not by a billionaire,
but by tech entrepreneurs, with a focus on autonomous system
drones and AI. Its specialty is agility, moving fast, breaking molds,
delivering unconventional solutions to defense problems. Partnering with the rocket

(30:18):
program signals at the Air Force wants not just the
size and strength, but innovation and how rockets can be
adapted to real world military needs. And it's kind of
simple in a way. You load a rocket with supplies,
launch it in sub orb to flight, and land it
halfway across the planet in less than an hour. What

(30:40):
takes days by ship or hours by jets could take minutes.
In a crisis humanitarian or military, that kind of speed
changes the equation food, medicine, ammunition, maybe even heavy equipment
could be delivered where needed by passing choke points and
vulnerab Now, of course, rockets are expensive, complex, and largely unforgiving.

(31:08):
Landing a massive vehicle loaded with cargo requires precision beyond
you know what has been proven to scale outside of SpaceX.
Who can apparently land a large ass rocket next to
a boy out in the ocean. But the military is
willing to invest because the payoff is strategic mobility unlike
anything history has seen. And the selection of blue origin

(31:31):
and dural reflects a balance of tradition and disruption. One
it causes giant with deep pockets in the other and
agile newcomer pushing boundaries. So today together they kind of
embody the air forces bet that the future of logistics
will not be just faster aircraft or longer supply chains,
but maybe, just maybe rockets streaking across the sky, turning

(31:54):
Earth into an even smaller, more connected battlefield. Now with that,
we've ridden the fire this first half. With rockets thundering skyward,
constellations of satellites spreading their nets across the night nations,
and companies racing for premises in the stars, the machinery

(32:19):
of ambition is alive and loud, and its echoing circles
our world. Once more. Beyond the roar of engines and
the calculus of contracts lies another question, something quieter, something older.
It is the questions of origins, of seeds, scattered in

(32:39):
the dark, of whether life itself was a gift or
was it an accident. If rockets are how we leave Earth,
then mystery is what waits when we arrive elsewhere. So
for a moment, set aside the thrust in the heat
shield tiles, the payloads and the promises, step into the

(33:01):
silence between worlds, where possible hums become a reality of
a forgotten song, and Tonight's intermission will carry us there.
We will be back in a few minutes. M le leave, m.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
M m.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
M m.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
M m hm.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Hm hm.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
M m m m.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
M stone doors whispered the non forgotten skies.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
Seeds of fire scattered through the river.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
Blacks.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
Bluembrints falled in the fabric cold.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
A child written in the language is no one members.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
M h.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
M hm m m.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
M h m hm.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
M hm.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
M m m hm m m m h.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
M hm.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
H m.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
Architectally it has a shadow trade ground reading dusky longs
the never very old is a question and got sways

(37:06):
in the mon.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
He welcome back, thank you for sticking through that h
so as the song fades, leaving only its echo, a
reminder that the universe itself may have been written with
a flaw in the margins, a cosmic mistake, if you will,
or maybe even a deliberate joke hidden in the fabric

(38:17):
of creation. From what whisper of music, we returned to
questions older than rockets? How did life begin? Here? Was
earth chosen, seated, shaped by hands unseen? Or what we
just simply sprouted out one day in a garden far

(38:38):
larger than we imagine. The scientists call it panspermia, the
idea that leaf life can leap between worlds, being carried
on comets, dust, or maybe even something stranger, and of
course is speculation, but tonight it's going to frame our

(38:58):
next story. The universe itself is built on a flaw,
a cosmic accident, and in that silence we return. For centuries,
we have told ourselves that life on Earth was a
singular event, a miracle of chemistry, a lucky convergence of molecules, lightning,

(39:22):
and time. We picture warm ponds, primordial soups, oceans churning
with energy, until one day, somehow the spark became a fleame.
Now that story is comforting because it keeps us at
the center. Life begins here on this planet, and from
it rose everything we possibly could know. But what if

(39:47):
that story is incomplete? And I know some of you
have answers for this, and I appreciate your answers. I
usually don't go there on this program, though, But what
if Earth was not the beginning, but only a chapter
in a longer tale. What if life here was seated, delivered,

(40:09):
and carried across the stars as far back as the
late nineteenth century. Some thinkers suggest that that seeds of
light life might travel between worlds, born on comets or
locked within meteorites. The cosmos, in this view is not
a void but a garden, and Earth is only one
plot where the seeds took root. Now recent voices have

(40:34):
returned to this idea with renewed seriousness. In a world
where we are now finding organic molecules on asteroids, complex chemistry,
and interstellar clouds, and even the hints of possible biosignatures
on Mars, the question no longer seems that absurd. Could

(40:55):
it be the first spark of life on Earth was
not actually from Earth? One scientist recently put it more boldly,
Perhaps aliens intelligent and agent see it at this world deliberately,
you know, not little green men scattering spores here and there,
but in advanced civilization, seating planets as part of some

(41:18):
vast experiment or insurance policies. If you want life to endure,
you do not leave it in one place. You scatter
it the way a tree scatters seeds on the wind,
the way already visits mons behind the circle k knowing
not all will grow, but maybe, just maybe some relationships

(41:42):
will thrive. Now it sounds audacious. Maybe even a bit
reckless to speak of aliens planting life. I mean, I've
done it three times. Yet the idea carries weight because
the alternatives are just as challenging. The origin of life
remains one of the deepest mysteries of science. Decades of

(42:03):
study and we still don't know how elite from chemistry
to biology occurred. Was it lightning striking primordial soup, hydrothermal
events whispering energy into the deep, or was the spark
never here at all, but carried from beyond. There is

(42:23):
no proof, not yet, that there are hents that feed
the speculation. Organic compounds discovered and meteorites fell to Earth.
We have amino acids, the building blocks of proteins have
been found in the dust of comets. Even entire complex
molecules drifting in interstellar clouds waiting to be swept into

(42:43):
a young world. Now, these are not the fingerprints of aliens,
but they are the fingerprints of possibility. And so the
question lingers. If life began elsewhere and traveled here, what
does that make us? Are we children of the Earth
or are we children of the cause? Are we unique?
Or are we just echoes of a process repeated countless

(43:05):
times across the galaxy. Our skeptics caution us to hold
our wander and check. The absence of evidence is not
evidence of absence, but it is also not proof. Panspermia
in any form remains a hypothesis, Yet it is a
hypothesis worth holding because it stretches our imagination. It reminds

(43:28):
us that life is not fragile, not confined, not necessarily
to bound to just one world's history, And in a way,
it actually changes very little whether the first spark lid
here or elsewhere. The fire has burned for billions of
years on Earth, it has climbed from single cells to forest,
to oceans and civilizations. That path is Earth's, even if

(43:54):
the first step was borrowed. But in another way, it
changes everything. If life can leap between worlds and the
universe is alive in ways we have barely begun to imagine.
It means that when we search Mars or Europa or Insulatus,
we are not just looking for alien life. We may
be looking for long lost relatives, distant cousins, possibly seeded

(44:18):
from the same cosmic hand. Perhaps one day we will know,
Perhaps a sample from Mars will show the same genetic
signatures we carry proof that life here and there share
a common origin. Perhaps a probe will find organisms beneath
the ice of Europea and their chemistry will echo ours.

(44:42):
Or maybe we'll find out life is truly alien built
on the pattern. We have never seen proof that universe
writes life in many, many dialects. Until then, we have
to admit the question itself is a gift. Now, if
life can scatter between worlds like seeds on the wind,

(45:05):
then we are reminded that space is not only generous,
it is also very dangerous. For every comet that may
deliver ingredients of life, there are asteroids that promise only destruction,
and one of them already happens to have a name
that speaks to its reputation of Popphus, the god of chaos.

(45:27):
Discovered in two thousand and four, the asteroid has caused
an immediate stir. Every calculation suggests that in twenty twenty
nine it might strike the Earth. Now, of course, the
headlines came fast, and the fears even faster. Later refinements
rolled ruled out that collision, but the truth remains no

(45:49):
less dramatic. In April of that year, Apophas will pass
closer than many satellites visible to two billion people with
nothing more than their eyes, A mountain of rocks weeping
past our world, close enough to stir the imagination, close
enough to remind us a chance still rules the cosmos. Now,

(46:14):
scientist see and upop is both danger and opportunity. The
danger is obvious, it's orbit takes, It's near enough that
the future passes passers must be watched carefully. But the
opportunity is equally striking. Never before when we have a
chance to study such a large asteroid at such a

(46:34):
close distance, safely, with instruments and missions ready. Probes are
being prepared to shadow it, to measure its surface, to
ask what stories a rock billions a year old might
be able to tell us about the Solar System's past. Now,
for those who watch this guy's, the date is already

(46:54):
marked April thirteenth, twenty twenty nine. Yes, April thirteenth of
twenty twenty nine is a Friday. As if mythology and
human superstition weren't enough already for this encounter, the calendar

(47:15):
seems eager to add its own bit of irony. And
yet there is also a kind of wonder in this
Pafus will not be a threat on that night, it
will be a spectacle. Once again, two billion people might
be able to look up, seeing with their naked eyes,
a kind of visitor that has shaped the history of worlds.

(47:35):
Dinosaurs did not have the luxury of telescopes or you know,
space programs, or maybe even planetary defense conferences. We do.
Watching Apophus reminds us both of our vulnerability and our
capacity to prepare. And yes, the name of Pophus fits

(47:58):
any Egyptian mythology. Apophus was the serpent of chaos, the
eternal foe of the sun, and a more modern mythology
it became the name of an alien tyrant, an enemy
to a team that stepped through gates between worlds. Drink
fiction and reality overlap here a reminder that the threats
we imagine are often reflections of the dangers we already

(48:19):
know exist. And yes, life may spread like seeds, as
we considered in our last story, but seeds must grow
in soil that survives. And so we turn from the
chaos hypopus to the question of how fragile our protective
bubble truly is? How the solar wind and cosmic storm
shape the edge of the world. For there is another

(48:44):
frontier of danger and discovery, one that lies far beyond
the asteroid belt, at the edge of the Sun's reach,
where the solar winds become thin and collide with the
raw currents of interstellar space. It's a different kind of
battle that's being fault and to understand it, NASA is
preparing emission the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe or IMAP.

(49:08):
As I mentioned earlier. It will travel to a point
millions of miles away, bounced between the pull of Earth
and the push of the Sun, with a clear view outward.
It will be able to measure charge particles. It'll be
amazing what we will get back from this.

Speaker 3 (49:28):
Now.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
Yes, Voyager or Viger is already and other star trek
fans will call it because that's the correct term. Has
glimpsed this region before, reporting of the strange transitions as
it left the Solar System. But what Voyager was a pioneer,
not a specialist. Its instruments were limited, designed in the
nineteen seventies and have stretched far beyond their expected lifetimes.

(49:53):
IMAP will be different. It will carry the most sensitive
detectors ever built for this task. Instruments able to capture
the structure, the shocks, and even the acceleration of particles
at the very edge of our world. Understanding the heliosphere
is part of understanding how planets survive. Without it, Earth
would be exposed as Mars is to radiation that's their

(50:16):
lizes and strips away atmospheres. And by comparing our heliosphere
to what we see around other stars, we learn what
kind of bubble might shelter life elsewhere in the galaxy.
I'm out to data could become a template for knowing
which exoplanets are truly habitable, not just with oceans and atmosphere,

(50:39):
but perhaps even more importantly the shields against the cosmic
storm and maybe maybe just eventually beyond you know what
shield lies a wider cosmos of galls, galaxy of planets,

(51:00):
asteroids and systems that refuse to you know, fit the
molds we once thought were secure. So NASA not long
ago marked a milestone the confirmation of six thousand exoplanets
six thousand worlds, cataloged their orbits, measured their signals teased

(51:22):
from the faint dimming of starlight. Some are hot jupiters
bloated at giants skimming the surfaces of the Sun. Some
are frozen, locked in orbits where light is only a memory.
A few are rocky or sized, standing out like needles
in a haystack. Each one expands the map of what
we know, and each one reminds us that our solar

(51:42):
system is not a standard, but one variation among countless designs. Now,
what is remarkable here is not just the number. More importantly,
it's the pace. Only three decades ago we knew of none.
Now the sky is crowded as almost as much as

(52:04):
earth atmosphere with starlinks. Each one of Laboratory of Physics
and Chemistry astronomers are not simply counting. They are searching
the science of atmosphere's waters and maybe the subtle fingerprints
that might even suggest life. Every detection sharpens the question,
which of these six thousand are not just planets but something,

(52:29):
something may call home? Now closer in, another discovery has
added surprise to familiarity. For Yuga, the asteroid visited by
Japan's Hyabusa two mission, was once thought to be a
rubbel pile, a fragment without much to say, But the
samples returned to Earth are telling a much different story.

(52:52):
Buried in his dust were signs of water, hydrated minerals
that suggest its parent body once held flowing water and
other words, This asteroid, drifting dark and silent and space,
is carrying a memory of rivers. The implications of this

(53:15):
are profound. If water flowed on Riogo's parents' parent body,
then asteroids are not just remnants of creation. They are
vessels of chemistry, carriers of the conditions that make life possible.
They might even be the couriers delivering water and organics
to young planets, much like Earth.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
Now.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Together, these discoveries paint a picture both dizzying and intimate.
Six thousand worlds scattered across the galaxy and a single
rock in our neighborhood whispering of ancient water. The scale
swings widely from the cosmic to the granular, but the
theme remains the same. The universe is full of surprises
and life maybe just might be less rare than we

(54:04):
ever once thought. But from exoplanets and asteroids, well, we
have to turn to something that's a little less tangible
yet way more powerful. For even when their light appears steady,

(54:25):
stars can roar, shredding steams of energy that ripple through space,
and in rare cases, those winds reach a scale so
extreme they force us to rethink what we thought we
knew about the most violent objects in the world. Astronomers
may have been watching one such case around a neutron
star that collapsed remnants of a supernova a coruso dense

(54:48):
that a teaspoon would outweigh mountains. They have detected winds
unlike anything they have measured before. These are not the
gentle breezes of solar wind that shaped our heliosphere. These
are torrents, outflows so powerfully challenge our models of how
matter behaves in such extreme environments. What makes this discovery

(55:08):
remarkable is it has a connection to black holes. Neutron
stars and black holes share a stage, both are born
from death, both warp the space around them, both radiate
energies that belie their size. But the winds observed here
may help explain how black holes, especially the monsters at

(55:30):
galactic centers, actually shape the universe around them, or if
a neutron star can drive outflows this strung and perhaps
the colossal jets of black holes are not singular mysteries,
but part of a broader continuum of stellar violence. And
this is where I have to remind us frequently that

(55:56):
we are still in maybe the early middle school ages
of understanding science, for the science is young, thement measurements
are still being parsed. But there are implications that winds,
in particular, these winds may explain how galaxies regulate their growth,
how matter is recycled, and how the seeds of new

(56:21):
stars are sown. In the cosmics where balance depends on destruction,
the death the breath of a dead star may become
the architect of life yet to come. And there is
a bit of i'll say it, romantic poetry in this.
The smallest of rim that's reshaping the largest of structures.

(56:41):
A star that has already ended is well, it's ended
its story, sending out maybe that one little final song,
one strong enough to be heard across the fabric of space.
For all the wonders of exoplanets and asteroids, it is here,
and the violence of collapse at the universe reminds of
just how fragile and how connected it really is. And yes,

(57:06):
well the winds of neutron stars may reshape galaxies. We
do have to well come back home a little bit,
because as we see in our forest and crowded cities.
Wind can blow debris anywhere and everywhere.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
And.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
We have to start looking. And I know, I don't
know if I'll still here. I know you have to
leave early. You really need to get your business started debris.
While I've made a joke that the maps are always,
you know, over selling it, there is still a lot
of debris in our low Earth orbit and higher orbit

(57:50):
orbit as well, And for more than sixty years, every
launch seems to have left a trace of it existing
in orbit. We still have rocket stages, satellite fragments, even
tools lost by astronauts, and that result is a truthful,
growing halo of junk around Earth, tens of thousands of

(58:13):
tracked objects and many many more that are too small
to actually monitor, and each one traveling at lethal speeds.
Up to this point, the solutions have largely been heavy
and complex robotic arms to grab the breed, nets to
snare it, are poons to spirit and drag it down. Yes,

(58:35):
they actually used a wailing method to do this, but
a new idea, one that's simple and principle, may offer
a cleaner path. And as weird as it sounds, it
doesn't come from nets or claws. But the idea may
have been well, I'll say it may have come from

(58:58):
the idea of a fart. Yes, I'm talking about exhaust
for ion engines already used on mini spacecraft work by
expelling charge particles at high speed. They are quite efficient, precise,
and capable of firing for months or even years. Engineers

(59:19):
now propose using that same exhaust as a broom for
space junk. Instead of trying to capture debris directly, A
dedicated janitor satellite could fly close to a piece of
junket direct its ion exhaust against it. A gentle but
persistent bush would lower the debris orbit, causing it to
re enter and burn up into the atmosphere. Now, I

(59:43):
have to admit it's kind of an elegant solution, using
the tools of propulsion not just to move the spacecraft
but to nudge danger out of orbit, and unlike complicated
capture systems, it does not require grappling with tumbling objects
or building some kind of gigantic mechanical traps. The ion

(01:00:03):
exhaust does the work quietly and visibly, and a whisper
of thrust, cleaning the sky, much like my gas on
a drunken night. Of course, the challenges will remain. Each
piece of debris must still be tracked and targeted. Each
cleanup craft can only work on one object at a time,
and with tens of thousands of hazards, the task will
be immense. But the idea of points toward a future

(01:00:26):
where orbital maintenance is routine as street sweeping, not glamorous
but essential. And yes, Raptor, that wasn't lost on me.
So from galactic winds to orbital whispers, the theme is
the same. Survival depends not only on ambition but also

(01:00:50):
on maintenance, which makes it fitting because as we close
to turn our gaze upward, not to junk order engines,
but to the sky itself. And now we head to
the celestial forecast that guides our nights ahead. Step outside
these next couple of nights, and the first thing you'll

(01:01:11):
notice is what you don't see the moon on September
twenty First, hey, that's today, It goes new slipping into
the shadow, a darkened sky, a blank canvas perfect for stargazing.
The timing is exquisite because oh guess what Saturn is

(01:01:35):
reaching opposition. So picture this if you will. Earth slides
directly between Saturn and the Sun, the great ringed planet,
fully lit, visible almost all night with no moonlight to interfere.
This is the sharpest, brightest view of Saturn will have
all year. Even a modest telescope will reveal its rings tilt.

(01:01:58):
It's so thin they look like a cosmic record left
spinning across the heavens. And I am so sorry to
hear that out. And as the week girls on, we'll
watch as the moon returns, and by September twenty ninth,
it reach its first quarter, a perfect half lit lanterns
high in the sky, cutting clean lines across the darkness.

(01:02:19):
And while the moon regains its glows, the skies will
be lively. Yet the September Epsilon persity persons, a faint
but persistent media shower, continued to us send the occasional
streak across the early morning hours. No, it won't rival
October show of your displays, but with the Moon out
of the way, even the faint ones stand a greater

(01:02:41):
chance of being seen. Now the planet's not wanting to
be left out. We'll have their own drama too. Jupiter
rises late, but when it does, it shines as the
brightest thing in the night sky after the moon, but
there's no moon shining.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Guess what.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
Through binoculars they glimpse its galley and moons, the four
tiny sparks a orbiting like a miniature solar system, And
just before dawn, Venus will read the early risers right
low in the east. It earns its title as the
morning star, making and marking the edge between night and day.
And September twenty second brings the equinox. Day and night

(01:03:23):
become a perfect balance for a moment, equal halves of
the cosmic scale. After that, shadows will stretch a little
longer in northern hemisphere, and the sun begins its tilt
toward winter, as my thirty four degree temperature last night
clearly clearly indicated. So what do we have, Well, we

(01:03:48):
have new moons, darkness, Saturn at its prime, Jupiter's royal return,
and Venus as the herald of dawn. And through it
all the turning up seasons written not on the calendar,
but through the skies. The universe shows no intention of
slowing down, only of reminding us to look up and
not miss the show. Special thanks in NASA, Spacexpace dot Com,

(01:04:15):
RCE Technica NASA Space Flight, Popular mechanics, and more for
the stories and inspiration. Tonight with me at the helm
and the EP setting course with the ship's computer in
the back, whispering the star maps through the static. This
has been the Lost Wanderer podcast until next orbit. I

(01:04:39):
hope you enjoyed the show, learned a little bit along
the way, and maybe maybe laughter two as well. The
universe is a pretty big place.

Speaker 3 (01:05:01):
It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
So if it's just us, it seems like an awful
waste of space, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
a miracle. Oh it was beautiful, magical, and d the
birds in the trees would they be singing so happily,
oh joyfully, oh playfully watching me with the Missabila, the

(01:05:44):
teachery How to be sensible, Logical,